Vigilantes of New York City
by AllyM93
Summary: *ON HIATUS* When Isabella is saved by a vigilante she becomes a little obsessed with finding him. Only thing she knows is that he's massive, able to toss people like rag dolls and that the police are trying to track him down too. Using the internet to get leads, she finds a blog dedicated to finding others who've been saved by this person.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: HI! This is my first time creating fanfiction for the TMNT so please be nice! Please review! Also I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art : TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _This is set after the events of the 2014 Movie version!_

* * *

Many things in life are avoidable. Use condoms to avoid pregnancy and STDs. Install house security to avoid break ins. And keep away from dark alleyways in New York City to avoid trouble. Good advice, however, good advice is not always followed 100% of the time. If it was Isabella would not be staring down the barrel of a gun right now.

 _Why the hell did I have to take this shortcut home?_

Isabella chastised herself as she tried to get a good look at the man who now held a gun to her. She couldn't see well with the shadows protecting him from being really visible but she could see the gleam of his teeth, he was smiling at her. It raised the hairs on the back of her neck and it wasn't cause of the weather in July that night. Isabella watched as he put his left index finger to his lips, before she heard him ready the gun. All Isabella had on her was her dance bag, which did have her wallet inside unfortunately.

"Now listen suga," she could hear the Brooklyn accent the guy sported as he spoke to her, teeth glittering a little.

 _Does this guy have tracks over his teeth?_

"I t'ink you know whadda I want," he gestured to her bag before bringing the gun back up to her face. His tone made her skin crawl. She slowly raised her hands, seeing that they were slightly shaking as she tried to remain calm.

"Look," Isabella was happy when her voice didn't break from fear, "I really don't want to give you my wallet. My ID is in there. You have any idea how long it takes to get a new one?" She babbled as she watched the guy look at her confused before she quickly reached for the gun.

 _Thank you grandpa for teaching me this!_

Isabella remembered from all those years ago when her grandpa had taken her and her little sister aside to teach them the basics of how to shoot a gun and how to disarm someone as well.

 _"Brace your feet before quickly knocking the person's arm off to the side while pushing your body to the other, so in case the gun goes off you don't get shot. Next, while the person's grip is loosened, take the gun and turn it on them."_

Isabella tried to keep her breathing even as she pointed the gun on him. She could tell that he was shocked by the turn of events, not anticipating this. Unfortunately that shock was quickly replaced with anger. In a flash, too quick for Isabella to fire the gun on him, the man took out a switch blade and lunged for her. Isabella cried out when the blade grazed her left shoulder.

"You bitch!" Isabella fell backwards, hitting the ground, dropping the gun. She heard it slide across the alley floor away from her. "Your gonna regret that!"

Scrambling to get up and away she suddenly felt the ground tremble slightly beneath her. Looking up to where her attacker was, she saw that someone else was now in the alleyway, someone big. Very big!

Isabella blinked, temporarily forgetting about the pain in her shoulder. She watched as this new person started beating up her attacker. It didn't last long. He was out cold after a few punches and was then thrown against one of the brick buildings. Isabella quickly looked back at this new person.

Her attacker had been tall but not intimidatingly so like this guy. There was something off about him though. He was oddly bulky. She was positive this person was male, with the towering height and huge arm muscles that were outlined by the street light coming into the alley.

Isabella watched as he took the gun apart, the bullets falling to the ground quietly. She watched the bullets fall before quickly looking back to the man who had no doubt just saved her life. Before she could continue analyzing, her savior jumped up to a nearby fire escape.

"Wait!" she called out as she watched him climb.

"Get to a hospital," a voice, _definitely male_ , told her before he got to the roof and disappeared.

After hearing that Isabella felt her shoulder pain come back. She looked and was stunned to see how much she was bleeding. Getting out her phone from her bag, she dialed 911. Isabella looked up at where she had seen him last while she told the 911 operator she needed an ambulance and the police.

* * *

Five stitches!

Isabella grimaced as she listened to the doctor's instructions on how to care for it. The antibiotic ointment felt sticky on the area around the stitches as a nurse placed a nonstick bandage over it. The doctor told her to not remove the bandage for at least twenty-four hours, don't scratch at the stitches, that when showering to not scrub or soak the wound in water for the first forty-eight hours, do not stretch the skin (which meant no dancing for a while), that redness around the stitches was normal, blah blah blah.

Isabella didn't want to be rude by rolling her eyes but she really wished she could. This wasn't the first time she had ever had stitches, granted she'd never had this many but still, this guy kept going on and on. Looking around the room Isabella felt her tense shoulders loosen some. She couldn't believe that she had almost died tonight.

 _I can't die yet... I need to achieve all my dreams first._

Isabella then mentally cursed when she realized the audition she had been planning on going to this Tuesday would be missed thanks to her stitches.

Finally the doctor finished with stating that she'll have to come back in five days to see if the stitches would be ready to be removed. If not then she'd come back five days after that.

Sighing, Isabella glanced at the bandage. Hating the sight of it, she looked back to the doctor.

"Do you have any questions?"

Looking at the counter behind him, she gestured to the candy jar, "Can I have a red one?" Lollipops were her favorite type of candy, cherry being her favorite flavor.

The doctor smiled kindly, not making any jokes about her childish request and handed her one. As Isabella unwrapped the wrapper there was a knock on the door. Two policemen came in.

 _Not policemen, detectives._

She knew they were detectives because she had already told the police who had arrested her attacker what happened. Isabella had been entirely honest with their questions, knowing that they would never believe that she, at 5'4" could hurt a man who was at least 6' and a lot bigger then her. At least not hurt him **that** much. Isabella had gotten to see him in the street lights back at the 'scene of the crime'. His face was swollen, the back of his head scrapped from hitting the bricks, and he had been wheezing, probably from a broken rib or more. The ambulance ride over had been hard, her attacker had been the one on the stretcher while one of the EMT's attended to her shoulder. But Isabella supposed it was better then her being the one on it or... in a body bag. She shivered and was so grateful that someone had appeared and saved her.

Isabella sucked on the lollipop as the doctor and detectives exchanged a few words before the doctor gave her a parting smile and left the room with the nurse in tow. The two men before her were large but in different ways. The tanned one with curly brown hair and a goatee was big in the muscular sense. The other man next to him was of Asian descent and round in the middle area. They both didn't look too happy to be there.

"Miss Isabella Ortiz, I'm Detective Peter Harris and this is my partner Richard Lee. We're here to follow up on the events that befell you this evening," the muscular one said. Isabella nodded, enjoying the cherry flavor on her tongue.

"Could you please explain to us how everything played out? From beginning to end till the ambulance came," Detective Lee questioned.

Isabella took out her lollipop. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, Isabella explained how she had been on her way home from her dance class. Detective Harris asked if she could tell them her exact movements leading up to the attack. So she explained how her dance class was on 28th St Broadway and she had gotten the 1 subway towards Van Cortland Park before getting off at Time Sq, transferring to the Q line towards Astoria Ditmars Blvd and had gotten off at Queensboro Plaza. When she had cut in between two buildings to get home sooner she had run into the man with the gun.

"He told me to be quiet and to hand over my bag." Her free hand lightly pat her dance bag settled in her lap.

"Obviously that didn't happen," Detective Harris said, slightly smirking before looking back up at Isabella.

"You told Officer Scott that you disarmed him of his gun. How did you manage that?" Detective Lee inquired.

Isabella felt her lips curve up, "My grandpa is a retired FBI agent and taught me how to do that."

"Impressive," Harris said smiling. Isabella was beginning to wonder if this detective thought she was hot by the way his eyes subtly kept trailing over her.

Continuing she told them how even though she was able to get his gun he pulled a blade on her, cutting her and in the process knocked her to the ground.

"I thought I was done for and tried to get to my feet when I looked back at my attacker to see someone else standing there. The next part happened so fast, like two eye-blinks later my attacker was knocked out and the other guy was taking out the gun's bullets. He then leaped onto the buildings fire escape before getting to the roof. I called out to him before he told me to call for an ambulance then simply vanished."

"Could you describe this other person in detail?" Isabella thought for a few moments, trying to remember everything she had been able to make out in the darkness.

"He was very tall... he towered over my attacker, who was around 6'. So maybe the guy was probably closer to 6'7" or something crazy like that. I didn't really see much in the dark alley but his figure was... strange... Massive! I saw that he had really large arms. His voice was deep too."

Isabella watched the detectives faces as she described him and saw a look of recognition in their eyes. "Has there been other incidences like mine?" Lee blinked in surprise for a second before trying to mask it.

Harris answered, "For some time now people who have been attacked, many victims report of someone suddenly appearing, violently beating on the people harassing them before disappearing just as quickly."

"Like Batman?" Isabella couldn't help herself, she quickly bit her tongue.

"In a sense yes, but this is a very serious crime. Vigilantism is to be taken seriously Miss Ortiz," Lee said before his cellphone beeped. Lee showed it to Harris and the two men exchanged a glance before Harris stepped towards Isabella.

"Thank you for your cooperation Miss Ortiz. If you remember anything else, feel free to call me." He held out his business card to her. She read it before pulling out her wallet and slipping it inside.

"Have a good evening Miss Ortiz." Isabella nodded before she stood up, watching the two men leave. Checking her phone she sighed with how late it was now. Murphy would be waiting for her hungry.

Even though the hospital was only a ten minute walk to her studio apartment, she was shaken from the nights events and called for a cab.

Thankfully the cab didn't smell, something Isabella had found to be quite common when she first moved to the city two years ago. Walking inside her apartment complex lobby she was greeted by the concierge before getting into the elevator. Isabella was right about her little Murphy. As she opened the door he was whimpering and jumping up on her leg. It was like he couldn't decide between being hungry and overly happy to see her again. She quickly punched in her security code, disarming it.

"Let me set my things down Murph, then I'll feed you." The boston terrier puppy followed her as she set her bag on her bed and kicked off her workout shoes. Her feet were a little sore from dance and her body was asking if it would be okay if they just pass out here and now. The adrenaline had long left her system making her feel even more drained. Isabella made quick work of Murphy's food before she hopped into her bathroom to shower.

Remembering her stitches she tried to maneuver herself so she could get clean while keeping the bandage dry. The warm water helped immensely. She felt herself relax as she shampooed her long brown tresses. Nearly everything Isabella used for washing up was fruit scented. Strawberry scented shampoo, Green Apple Cinnamon conditioner, and Oatmeal and Shea Butter body wash. Even her face wash was Pomegranate scented. The aroma steaming up in the bathroom was amazing every time she showered and was one of the final keys to getting her to relax at the end of the day. Drying herself off, her hair up in a towel turban, she quickly changed into some black leggings and a ice blue tank top.

"Murphy!" the little puppy came racing to her. Smiling, Isabella went into the kitchen, getting a dog treat.

"Murphy, sit!" the puppy sat, trying to stay still, eyeballing the treat she held.

"Lay down!" Murphy continued to sit, staring at the treat. Isabella knelt forward, her free hand motioning to the floor.

"Murphy, lay down," this time the puppy obeyed. "Yay!" Isabella softly cheered as she gave him his reward.

"Good dog!" she rubbed his head behind his ears before kissing the top of his little head. Straightening up, Isabella found herself staring out her window to the roof top of the building across the way.

Before even realizing what she was doing, Isabella had gotten her tennis shoes on and took her mostly dry hair out of the towel. She got out a warm jacket, despite it only being sixty-five degrees outside. Going into her dance bag, she pulled out her SR22 pistol and put it in her jacket's inside pocket. If she had been wearing a jacket earlier, her gun would have been easy to get to and...

 _The vigilante probably still would have saved me._

At least from what the detectives had said before, this person was acting like Judge Dredd or Batman.

 _Fighting bad guys... defending innocent people._

Grabbing her phone, she went to the front door.

"Murphy, stay," the puppy looked up from his bed in the corner.

Quickly locking up, Isabella made her way back outside. She gripped her phone lightly in her jackets outside pocket. Her heart began to pick up as she got closer to the alley where she had been nearly killed a couple hours earlier.

Peeking from behind the corner, she saw no one there. She looked up to where she had last seen the vigilante. Isabella walked over to the fire escape, jumping up before pulling herself up. Gasping in pain she felt her left shoulder sting and quickly peeked underneath the bandage. Sighing in relief that she had not popped a stitch she continued climbing until she made it to the roof. Her muscles had been protesting the whole way up but she ignored it.

The roof top was covered in gravel. It crunched under her shoes and she looked around for any signs of the vigilante. Glancing all over the gravel ground she couldn't see anything, no footprints, no trace of anything out of the ordinary.

 _He came up here... where would he be able to go?_

Isabella looked around, walking across to the other side of the roof. The distance between this roof and the next was not that far she noted.

 _If I had a running start I could make that leap._

If her calculations were accurate the vigilante had probably jumped the roof tops to get away before getting to the Queensboro Bridge. From their he could have disappeared down into the subway.

A chilly breeze lightly blew against her causing her to tremble a little. Isabella began to walk back towards the fire escape. Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru blared into the mostly quiet night. Isabella rapidly took her phone out. It was her mom.

"Hi mom." Isabella wondered for a moment if she should tell her mom about what had happened tonight before deciding against it. Her mom was across the country, no need to make her worry about her even more so then she already did.

"Sweety, it's almost one there, why are you still up?"

Isabella chuckled, "It's almost ten back in California. What are you doing up?"

"Who's the parent here?" She could tell her mom was smiling despite herself.

"I'm going to bed soon. I don't have to be up until eight," Isabella knew she would have to set multiple alarms to wake herself up though with how late it was getting. She really needed to go to bed but she couldn't juggle holding her phone while climbing down the fire escape.

"How's work? Still have a lot of clients?"

"Yes mom... Mom I told you that if I lose my job I will call you immediately. I won't do what Raquel did."

Isabella's younger sister moved out immediately when she had turned eighteen. This had happened back when Isabella had just moved to New York. Raquel had gotten a good job being a personal assistant to an up and coming swimwear designer. She moved to Los Angeles living with her high school friend Tina, who was trying to be discovered as a model.

For five months everything was great till Raquel was fired due to a dispute over her pay. She tried to get another similar job, going all over LA handing out her resume to other designers but unfortunately was never contacted back. Raquel hadn't wanted to go back home so she stayed out in LA, getting part-time jobs. With how expensive living in LA was she ultimately started going into debt in order to help pay for rent and food. It wasn't until Tina decided to move to Florida with her boyfriend did Raquel realize she had to ask for help from their mom. Two years later, living back at home she's in school but still trying to pay off credit card debt.

"I'm just saying, if you ever get into trouble, you'll always have a place here."

Isabella smiled softly, "I know mom. I love you."

"I love you too honey. Sleep well."

"Goodnight." Isabella put her phone back into her pocket before carefully descending the fire escape. Checking her stitches again she was relieved to see everything in place.

When she arrived back at her apartment she rushed through brushing her teeth and taking out her colored contacts before her nightly meditation. Isabella loved to mediate right before bed. It not only relaxed her body but helped clear her mind so that when her head hit the pillow she was asleep in less then two minutes flat.

* * *

Raphael and Mikey were getting lectured by Leo. Donnie was sitting on one of the stools by their new lair's kitchen, looking up some things on his iPad. All four of them had gotten home from their patrols that night. Everything had been fine till Donnie told them that the police investigation into vigilante activities had new reports coming in.

Quickly reading through the reports Donnie told them the police were getting more statements from the people they were saving. People were starting to paint a picture of them for the investigators. So far no one had a clear idea of who the vigilante was but they were being described as a very tall massive person who was able to throw people with very little effort.

Leo had told all of them a while back to tone it down on the beatings they were dealing out to petty criminals. This was hard, especially when they came across rapists and gangs of people beating on someone defenseless. Raph and Mikey were the ones who would often send people to the hospital. Raph knew he needed to control his anger better. Average humans were featherlight to him, making it hard to judge how much force to put behind a punch or kick sometimes. It had surprised Raph that Mikey, out of all his brothers would struggle with this too. The playful turtle just hated seeing all the wrong people did to one another.

Donnie had been able to hack into the police's system a while back to see if they were detecting the amount of bad people being found and beaten by them. Much to everyone's dismay the police had taken notice. Splinter had told them to always remain unseen by anyone topside. Aside from April and Vern, they interacted with no one else and always made sure to stick to the shadows.

Raph didn't see what the big deal was, no one ever got a good look at them. Their training had made them all masters of stealth and other then their height and large forms no one would ever think of a mutant turtle when people did get glimpses of them.

"Try to control yourselves when beating on criminals." Leo stood before the two brothers, his fearless leader voice coming out.

Raphael grumbled but gave a nod. He went over to look at these reports Donnie was reading.

"I think it's time for us to switch sections of the city we're patrolling Leo," Donnie said, not looking up from his iPad.

"What makes you say that?" Leo walked over, standing next to Raph as Donnie explained.

"It's mostly due to all the criminals Raph and Mikey are sending to the hospital. They are seeing a pattern with where they are occurring." Raphael grunted, not sorry for causing some bad men to be bedridden for a couple months.

 _They deserved it and more..._

"So swapping areas would help so if Mikey slips up-" Raph was cut off.

"Heyy...!" Mikey was seated on the couch in front of the TV when he took offense to that.

"Or Raph is unable to keep his anger in check," Leo said before Donnie spoke up.

"This way we have a low percentage rate of having the police catch on to our patrol routes."

Leo thought this over before nodding to Donnie, "I'll switch with Raph and Mikey will switch with you. Everyone got that?" His voice carrying so that Mikey could hear over the TV.

"Whatever you say Fearless," Raph said before walking towards their room's area.

"I'm cookin' pizza!" Mikey said before leaping off the couch, heading into the kitchen.

Raph could hear metal clanging together as Mikey went to work on their dinner. He went to shower. Taking off all his gear and armor he thought of the reports he had been able to read over Donnie's shoulder. From what he was able to get, the investigation was starting to rely more on the information from the people they had saved, which is how they were building a profile on them.

Turning on the water before stepping behind the curtain Raph reflected on his night. There had been less gang related violence in the Queens area recently but a rise in individuals committing crimes. The rise in attempted assault and theft had been keeping him busy though. Just that night he had stopped fifteen attempted rapes, twenty-seven attempted assaults, and nearly thirty muggings. One of the muggings stuck out in his mind from that night. This guy had pulled a gun on this lady making her way home. When Raph had planned to intervene the woman surprised him. She had started talking to the guy, _complaining_ to him about if he took her wallet it would be a big inconvenience for her. At first Raph wondered if she was simply panicking or was really stupid but he was taken aback when she managed to get her would-be muggers gun.

It had been a long time since he had seen a young woman not cower away in fear when threatened. For a moment he questioned if he should move on, but the guy pulled a blade out and lunged for her. Raphael silently leapt down and had the guy's lights out in less then a minute. The next thing he should have done was get out of there but he didn't.

Raph shut off the water, toweling himself dry. He wiped the mirror before he put some of his gear back on along with his mask.

When the guy was likely nursing a concussion and a couple broken ribs, Raph had moved to the gun. Emptying the bullets, he could feel the lady's eyes on him. Knowing he had stayed there way too long he quickly leapt to the buildings fire escape. She called out to him, something that had not happened before but that was mostly due to him never lingering long when doing his job. Raph didn't stop his climb but he did glance down at her. The lights from the street lamps were illuminating her face. During her little confrontation with the mugger, the man's shadow had covered her appearance. The light revealed to him a beautiful brunette with hazel eyes. In the same glance he saw that her left shoulder had been cut, bleeding pretty badly onto her loose neon yellow top.

Raph sighed looking at his reflection. He had made two mistakes that night, lingering around and he had spoken to her. He needed to not make those mistakes again. Raph left the bathroom, heading back out to his brothers. He could smell the pizza Mikey had made them. When he sat down at the table Splinter came out of the dojo where he had been meditating to join them. Leo and Donnie took turns filling their father in on the police investigation and on their evening patrols. Mikey would chime in every once and while telling them how he had gotten two punks trying to hijack a fancy car. The two kids had been talking about trying to take it for some revenge scheme they had before Mikey threw some smoke bombs and knocked them out before leaving them down one of the deserted alleys. He had written on one of the kid's foreheads DON'T and on the other one's STEAL. Raph kept mostly quiet, only talking when Splinter or the others would talk to him.

On Raph's third slice, still thinking about the one almost mugging, he admitted to himself why he had lingered instead of disappearing. That young woman had intrigued him, in a way that hadn't happened before. Raphael was a guy, a mutated turtle but still a guy. He was now and again able to acknowledge a woman's beauty. Most of the women he saved from nasty fates were pretty. That girl tonight though, he had been interested in her before he got to see what she looked like clearly. It was for the best with Leo switching with him, getting away from Queens would be good for him to focus on his job protecting the people of this city. He would forget about her and his life would go on.

* * *

 _AN: So here's the first chapter! Little inside info about Isabella's cellphone ringer, if anyone caught the Kingdom Hearts reference let me know! I want to put a link to a studio apartment that I found that I used for a visual. I plan on putting that in another chapter, hopefully you'll be able to see it (I've had trouble with putting links in on this site :( ) Also please let me know what you think so far!_


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: Please review! Also I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art : TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _This chapter is Isabella (my OC) centric, but don't worry the turtles will be central in chapter 3!_

 _Also the **difference** between  texts and a character's inner thoughts is "Quotation Marks" and Lack there of:_

Text Message _, "What's up?"_ and Inner Thoughts, _Well that could have gone better..._

 _~ I don't know how often I'll be able to update the story since I am currently in the process of moving! Please be patient and a special thank you to **TheLadyOfSouls** and **TheMuseofWar** for reviewing!_

* * *

As Isabella expected, she did not fully wake up when her first alarm went off but fell immediately back to her pillows after pressing snooze. During the third alarm she sighed, finally getting up. She got out Murphy's breakfast before she cooked herself some scrambled eggs. After eating, she turned on the news to get the weather as she did her regular morning workout routine.

Stretching carefully, her muscles were loose after five minutes. After that she began doing some deep breathing exercises and yoga poses, while being mindful of her stitches, doing her best to not stretch the skin much. Twenty minutes of that she switched to cardio exercises. Isabella sometimes wished she had a bigger apartment so that she could practice her dance routines without fear of accidentally running into a piece of furniture or knocking something over.

Isabella had recently been trying out various styles of dance at the studio she practiced at, trying to increase her level of experience in different areas. She excelled best in jazz, then hip-hop but was also great at ballet, salsa and modern. So Isabella had signed up to join bellydancing, Bollywood, and pole dancing classes.

Toweling her sweaty face, she made a to call Amara, the owner of the studio, about her not being able to attend this week's classes. Walking into her bathroom, quickly washing her face clean before she started putting on some light-weight foundation, powder, light pink blush, and mascara. Isabella fixed her hair up into a romantic braided up-do. She finished with spritzing herself with some red plum and freesia scented perfume. Putting in her hazel contacts she went to her closet to put on her work clothes. The spa she worked at was one of the most grand and luxurious ones in the city, so she always made sure to look her best. Her clients knew she was very young but her skills were unmatched which was why she was requested so often and had a long list of regular clients.

Isabella had always been artistic. Music, dance, and art had always come naturally to her and she loved doing all three. When her dad left back when she was only six her mom had gone back to school, determined to not let her divorce affect Isabella and Raquel too much. Her parents had moved near them too, to help their daughter during such a difficult time. Isabella was incredibly grateful to her grandparents helping out so much during the years she had been growing up. If they hadn't been there she knew her mom would not have been able to afford all the dance and music lessons she had taken.

Checking her phone, she was glad to see she had about thirty minutes before she needed to depart for the subway. She put together a large fruit/veggie blended smoothie to enjoy this afternoon and got out a grab n' go healthy lunch packet she had decided to buy. It contained a pre-made sesame-ginger soba noodle salad with a side of edamame. She poured her smoothie in a big blue plastic travel mug before putting the lunch packet in her workbag.

"Murphy!" Isabella put the puppy's leash on before locking up her apartment. She headed to the apartment across the hallway that belonged to her neighbor Syndee, or Syn as she preferred. Syn looked after Murphy for her during the weekdays. It didn't hurt that Syn happened to be a professional dog walker too. Isabella had helped Syn move into her apartment seven months ago and she offered to look after the little guy, saying it was the least she could do for Isabella's generosity in helping her.

"Morning Izzy!" Syn nearly sang, her smile bright as always. She was a morning person, but Isabella suspected that coffee assisted the lovely girl to be this chipper in the morning.

Isabella smiled, handing Syn Murphy's leash, "Morning, I gotta run. You be good Murph!" The puppy yipped before Isabella dashed to the elevator. If she didn't hurry she would miss the subway. This time of year she didn't like taking the subways, with how hot and sticky it got but it was unavoidable. The rise in temperature during the summer season meant that the odors in the subway tunnels became extra noticeable. When it was really bad Isabella wished she was rich, so she could just take a cab to work. Thankfully, it wasn't terrible today on her way into the city.

Ivory Silk Day Spa was posh, very modern, and completely silver and off-white in its décor. To Isabella, it seemed like she was stepping into the future whenever she walked into work. She checked in with her manager Shelly and got her list of appointments for the day.

"Morning Izzy," Isabella looked up from her nail station that she was currently trying to organize when one of her coworkers Kayla walked up.

"Morning," she said before covering her mouth to yawn.

"Late night?" Kayla waggled her eyebrows suggestively before she started setting up her station next to Isabella's.

"Not in that sense," she lightly laughed before she heard Kayla sigh in what sounded like annoyance. "What?"

Kayla pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing a bit, "You never date Izzy. Out of all the girls who work here and are single, you are the only one who never has anything romantic going on." Isabella closed her eyes to keep Kayla from seeing her roll them.

"That's not true. I had a date two weeks ago."

Kayla scoffed, "You said you didn't even kiss the guy!"

"Yes, but what I didn't tell you was that he took me to a bar for the date and ended up getting totally wasted! Sorry but I don't go in for the post-vomit smooch!" Kayla made a face but then sighed.

Isabella knew that Kayla was just one of those girls who's world revolved around romance and relationships. She loved hearing about other people's romantic exploits. Maybe it was because Kayla herself was married and her husband was not as exciting as he had once been? Isabella didn't know. But, Kayla seemed to be determined to help her friends and coworkers find love or at least something that may lead to interesting stories for her to hear about.

"Izzy," Kayla said, a hint of playful sadness now in her tone, "You're such an attractive girl. The guy probably drank too much because he was trying to calm his nerves." This time Isabella openly rolled her eyes.

When the spa opened Isabella relaxed, taking in a calming breath. She loved her job and rarely ran into ill-mannered customers. She had frequent clients so she knew a lot of them by name now. She would ask Carol how her grandkids were doing. Patrica how her mother was doing recovering from her back surgery. Katelyn on how her summer was going and what classes she planned on taking at NYU in the fall, all while creating beautiful works of art out of their nails.

Isabella had worked at Ivory Silk Day Spa for a year now. She had moved to New York City to become a professional backup dancer but needed a way to make money until that happened. Her mom and grandparents helped her out for the first year while she went to cosmetology school. One of her favorite professors happened to be good friends with the owner of the spa and voila! Her job was secured before she even graduated! Isabella knew she was incredibly lucky, last night's event could only prove that. She was just so thankful for her good fortune in those regards.

Around 2 o'clock Isabella was off for her lunch break. Looking at her phone as she went into the staff's back room to get her lunch from the fridge, she saw that she had a text from her best friend Emily.

" _Meet me at Della's in 10?"_

It had been sent thirteen minutes ago. Isabella quickly replied, texting that she was on her way over.

Della's was a popular little cafe across the street from the spa. Stepping out of the spa's back entrance, she speedily made her way there.

Emily's long blonde curls were always easy to find in a crowd, so Isabella spotted her easily enough in the jam-packed cafe.

"Hey Em!" she gave her a quick shoulder hug from behind before taking the seat across from her. Emily looked up from her phone that she had just been typing furiously on.

"Bad date?" One look told her yes, which was too bad. Emily had texted Isabella that she was going to be meeting up with this hot mechanic she had met in passing a few days ago while coming home from the office. Emily let out a long sigh, her cinnamon brown eyes looking up at Isabella sadly.

"You would have heard from me sooner if it went good Iz," she started eating her bagel sandwich.

Isabella took out her lunch, taking a sip of her smoothie, "What was it that made it so bad?"

Emily swallowed her bite before looking out the cafe's window, "It was going great until one subject came up. Take a guess." She blew out a frustrated breath.

"Tessa?" Emily sighed again, her head drooping slightly. Isabella reached across for her best friend's left hand and gently squeezed.

Emily was the first friend she made when she had moved to New York. Emily was a freelance writer for a couple graphic novel publishing companies and on her birthday a year and a half ago she had a little too much to drink. She had been trying to hail a cab, stumbling around before almost falling off the sidewalk into the busy street when Isabella had grabbed her away.

Isabella had been on her way home from her night classes when she had seen Emily. She helped her get home where she met Emily's aunt Lindsay and Emily's six month old daughter Tessa. After that the two of them became very close friends, bonding over their creative career ambitions and love of classic Disney/Pixar movies. Emily helped Isabella figure out the subway system and Isabella would sometimes babysit Tessa for her. They had been friends for eight months when Emily confessed to Isabella that the night they had met she had been planning to jump off of the Brooklyn Bridge. Emily explained how Tessa's father, a Spanish businessman by the name of Agustín Morillo whom she loved and had been dating since she was eighteen, left her after she told him she was pregnant. It caused her to spiral into a deep depression. After a while, even after Tessa was born, she didn't see a reason for living when she woke up everyday to her heart feeling like it was being torn into microscopic pieces and then lit on fire. Emily had no other family besides her aunt, her parent's died back in the 9/11 attacks. Lindsay loved children, though she could not have any herself sadly. So Emily at the time had not felt too terrible about leaving Tessa with her, but that all changed with Isabella's act of kindness to her, a random drunk stranger. And with the friendship they had formed after.

When Isabella heard all this, she immediately hugged Emily tightly and the two girls cried for a little. In that moment, Isabella was so happy her mom had taught her to always be kind to everyone, even strangers. That lesson had saved her new best friend's life and allowed Tessa to be able to grow up with her mom. After getting through therapy the only problem Emily continued to have was that she wanted to be loved, to not have to raise Tessa as a single mother. But she was convinced no man wanted to get involved with a almost twenty-two year old single mother of a toddler. She had been proven right every time she went out so far. Isabella knew that she needed to give Emily support and comfort until she found Mr. Right. 'Mr. Non-Existent' had been what Emily told her in response to that.

Emily shook her head in exasperation, "I really should just open with, 'Hi, I'm Emily and I have a two year old daughter!' That way the rejection will be quick and less painful."

Isabella chuckled, "You'll find someone someday Em."

"Yeah... When I'm forty and Tessa is grown up," her lips puckered a bit at that thought.

Isabella shook her head, "Not all guys will run from the situation you are in. I think he'll likely end up being one of the better men out there. Because he'll be able to love you and Tessa. I'd say just be patient."

Emily smiled and laughed at that, "Wow, nice lines. You mind if I use them for dialogue?"

"Not at all."

Emily giggled, seeming to feel better before picking up her phone, "So... what's happened to you in the last twenty-four hours?" For a moment Isabella said nothing as she took two more bites of her noodle salad. She decided that if she was going to tell anyone, it would be Emily.

"I was almost mugged last night-" Isabella was cut off by Emily's phone clanging onto the table.

"WHAT!?" Even in the busy commotion of the cafe, Emily's outburst caused many people around to jump and stare at her. She didn't seem to notice as she stared at Isabella, a terrified expression coloring her pretty features.

"Em, I'm okay-" she was cut off again.

"Why the hell are you asking me about my date when that happened to you!?" Emily stood up a little before swatting at Isabella's left shoulder.

"Owww!" Isabella hissed as she clutched her shoulder. Emily had hit it exactly wrong, causing her stitches to elicit pain.

"Oh come on! I barely touched you."

Isabella scowled, before pulling her shirt's collar off to the side, exposing her bandage. She mostly did it to show Emily that she wasn't kidding when she said ow and to just get showing her out of the way.

"Isabella Marie Ortiz! What happened!?" Emily's eyes bugged out as she stared, mouth slightly agape.

"Lower your voice and I'll tell you."

Isabella explained everything to Emily, watching to see if her best friend's eyes could possibly get any wider as she told her. When she finished, Emily was stunned into silence. Isabella continued to eat her lunch before Emily unfroze from the shock.

"God... I'm glad your okay..." Isabella's lips curved before she continued chewing on the edamame soybeans.

"So... someone is going around the city saving people who are in trouble?"

She nodded, still eating the last of the edamame.

"That's crazy! Good crazy cause he saved you, but that person is nuts!"

"What makes you say that he's crazy?"

Emily shook her head, "No, I mean its insane for a guy, even if he is giant like you say, to go around fighting criminals. It's likely going to get him killed..." she paused for a moment before adding, "It does make you wonder..." Isabella looked up to see Emily's thinking face. It was a face she usually made when trying to think of a good plot twist in the stories she wrote. Isabella could practically see the wheels turning in Emily's mind as she went deeper into thought.

"Wonder what?" Emily's eyes turned back to her.

"Why is he doing this? What pushed him to start this? What is he trying to achieve by doing this? How much of an impact is he really having with his actions? And how many people do you think he's actually saved?"

Isabella blinked in surprise, not having even thought of those very good points and felt her brain try to come up with some answers to these very interesting questions. In her daze she noticed a clock on one of the cafe's walls.

"Now I wish I could stay longer to discuss this... But my lunch break is about up Em."

Emily stood, gathering her trash, "It's okay, you could come over tonight after I put Tessa to bed. You can't dance with those stitches huh?" Her disappointed face made Emily give her a comforting smile and a quick hug.

"I'm going to miss my audition on Tuesday now..." Isabella mumbled.

"There will be other auditions Iz. You'll make it one day, I know it," Emily laughed, "If I could dance like you, I probably wouldn't write."

"Well then, thank god for that! I love your stories."

"Thanks, I do too!" The two women laughed and hugged once more before parting ways.

Throughout the rest of the day Isabella had to really focus on her work or else her thoughts would go back to the vigilante and the questions Emily had put in her head. Kayla chatted with her during their ten minute breaks so that helped to distract her some.

When Isabella got off work at ten she went straight home to pick up Murphy. The whole way home she felt on edge, eager to continue her talk with Emily about the vigilante.

"We're going over to Emily's Murph!" The puppy barked back happily, as Isabella put out his dinner and changed out of her work clothes into something more comfortable.

It was starting to cool down a little since it was almost August but Isabella had found out that even if the temperature went down for a while, it could always go back up until October came around. She picked out some short dark-wash denim shorts and a white t-shirt that had the words, 'Nail Technician by Day, Zombie Slayer by Night' written on it. Her hair she let out of its up-do, smiling at how nice and wavy the braids had made her hair. She sent a text to Emily, telling her she was leaving her place to head over.

Isabella put Murphy's leash back on before heading out the door. The night air was humid tonight, so Isabella decided that she would walk Murphy for a bit before calling for a cab to come and get her. When she got down to the end of her street she realized just how hungry she was. Her dinner had been half a chicken pita sandwich and a caesar salad with no dressing from Della's but that hadn't fully satisfied her.

 _There's a Dunkin Donuts two blocks away from here..._

She rarely got anything really sweet and bad for her ever, minus the lollipop from last night but that had only been fifty calories. Donuts and the bakery sandwiches they offered there were different, full of fatty and sugary goodness she rarely let herself indulge in.

 _I guess tonight I'll cheat my diet just a bit._

Smiling, Isabella led Murphy to the donut shop.

* * *

 _AN: Please let me know what you think!_

 _If you want to know what hairstyle Isabella used, go to YouTube and look up MakeupWearables Hairstyles and on that channel look up Romantic Braid Bun Hairstyle Summer Updo Hairstyles._

 _Also the link for the apartment I used for creating Isabella's is: (don't type in the spaces I used, the site won't let me use outside links as they are unfortunately -_-)_

cdn. home - designing wp - content / uploads / 2014 / 06 / studio - apartment - layouts . jpeg


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _Thank you for your patience! I know it's been over a month, but a lot has been going on. I ended up moving twice cause one place was not going to work out at all! I'm also starting two part-time jobs while also going to school. But anyway here's the third chapter! Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

Leo's P.O.V

Raph had been right about the decline in gang related activity in the Queens area. Leo looked out over the city from a tall building rooftop. If he turned to his right he could see Manhattan all lit up for the night. So far tonight there hadn't been too much criminal activity, just two muggings he had stopped. Leo was looking down to a semi-populated street. The blue-clad turtle watched the good people below go about their lives. Some heading home, others on their way to work, and some didn't seem to notice the late hour at all.

He watched a group of teens laughing as one of their friends fell off his skateboard, a mother holding her baby while trying to hail a cab, and a homeless man asking for spare change. Since Leo had been looking at the man, he watched as this young woman with a small dog walk over and hand him a cup of coffee and bag of food from Dunkin Donuts.

Smiling softly, Leo gave a nod of approval. It was seeing things like this that made him all the more determined to protect the good people of New York City. Leo was about to move onto a different part of the city when his bluetooth beeped. Looking down at his T-Phone, he saw that it was Mikey.

"Mikey, I still haven't changed my mind, we're not breaking into the ice station." Earlier, Mikey had wanted to go to one of the cities smaller indoor ice rinks, just cause he wanted to ride one of those Zamboni machines. He had probably seen someone doing it in a video online.

"I'm not calling about that Bro! I'm down near Floyd Bennet Field," Leo pulled up the map of the city on his phone and found Mikey on GPS.

"What are you doing all the way down there?" It was still within Mikey's patrol area, but it was way down there.

"I saw some suspicious looking people back near J.F.K airport. I'm sending you pics of them now." Donnie told them to make sure to get pictures of the people in question because often these people would have records and Donnie could identify them.

Leo looked at the photos carefully. In the first one there was a semi in a mostly dark deserted parking lot with three men standing at the back end of the semi's trailer. The next was of a group of men walking towards a couple of expensive looking Range Rovers. The next pic was a close up of the three men from before. Leo squinted, noticing something along one of the men's arm. It was a very intricate dragon tattoo, Leo recognized this kind of tattoo.

 _The Yakuza..._

"Mikey, how long ago did you take these pictures?" He clicked through looking at them again, trying to see all the details.

"Just two minutes ago dude. They're getting into the cars, want me to follow?"

"Yes, but stick to the shadows. I'm calling in the others. Do _Not_ engage them! Wait until we get there."

"Righty-O Leo."

Leo quickly called both Donnie and Raph. Telling them to go to Mikey's GPS location.

 _So much for it being quiet tonight..._

* * *

Raph's P.O.V

Leo's call had come at just the right time. He had just finished making an anonymous call to the cops about a group of burglars who had been trying to break into The Museum of Modern Art. The guys were now hanging upside down in the museum's main entrance.

Raphael had been itching to let out some rage, never being able to fully let loose because of how breakable humans were. A fight with the infamous Yakuza would likely be a challenge! Like the Foot Clan, this crime syndicate originally came from Japan with over 100,000 members all over the world. This was the first time he or his brothers had come across them though, so Raphael knew that Leo would order them to just watch and see if they were doing anything that would threaten the people of New York before letting them fight these people.

The Yakuza were not only a criminal organization, they also had legitimate businesses, but they were used as a cover no doubt for the real activities.

When all three brothers made it to where Mikey was, Raph could see that something was not right. They were near Dead Horse Bay, a very remote part of the harbor they were at. The brothers watched as a medium size yacht came into view before docking. The six men were waiting as two other men came off the boat, tying it off. One of the men walked to one of the other new arrivals and shook hands.

"Donnie, can you make out what they're saying?" Leo whispered. Donnie already had his goggles down, zooming in on the men.

"It appears to be a delivery exchange."

 _No shit Donnie!_

Raphael growled in annoyance, "We ain't stupid Don. What are they exchanging?"

Raph heard Donnie grumble before inhaling sharply, "Hold on! I see more people..." The other brothers looked back to the harbor, trying to see what Donnie was seeing. Other figures were coming from below deck.

"Leo, they're blindfolded women!" Raph squinted trying to see better.

"Dudes... We gotta save them!" Mikey took out his nunchucks. Leo put his hand up, telling them to wait.

"Are they restrained?" Leo's voice still hushed. Raph was a little peeved with how calm Leo could be all the time.

Donnie nodded, "Their hands are behind their backs. They appear to be gagged as well."

"How many?"

"Counting... Twenty-four."

"Leo, let's go!" Raph whispered impatiently.

"Not yet. The men will likely be taking these women to the truck to transport them. Before that happens we ambush them in the parking lot. Wait until they have the women in the truck so they won't be in the way or in danger. Donnie," the genius gave a nod but kept his eyes on the figures moving in the night. "You'll knock out the driver while the rest of us take out the men." Leo turned back to the men who were putting the women in the cars.

Signaling for them to follow, Leo led them back to the parking lot. Raph shifted between his right and left foot, trying to get his muscles loose before the fight. Like Leo had said, the men started forcing the women into the semi trailer. Just before the women were all inside, one of the girls at the very end managed to get loose of her gag and screamed bloody murder. She tried pulling away from the man gripping her before biting down on his clothed arm. The man let out a surprised shout. He quickly recovered himself and hit the back of her neck sharply. The girl fell slack in the man's arm.

"Now!?" Raphael whispered, his anger rising at the display he had just witnessed. Leo shook his head and Raph looked to where Leo's gaze was. Donnie skillfully lept down to the top of the truck. Luckily the driver's window was down. He used his bow-staff to silently knock out the driver. A group of the men went back to the cars leaving one to guard the semi's closed door.

"Now!?" Raph looked to Leo. Mikey grinned as Leo gave a single nod. Throwing down smoke bombs the brothers tried to silently take out the men.

One of the men shouted to the driver, "Doraibu*!" But Raph kicked the man into the side of one of the Range Rovers.

"Your driver is sleeping," he said tauntingly, getting really close to the man.

The guy looked up and shouted in fear, "Oni*!" He quickly got out his gun from inside his shirt.

Normally Raphael wouldn't care if the guy shot at him. He and his brothers had discovered that thanks to their reptile skin and the mutagen they were bulletproof. But Raph saw that the gun had a silencer on it, even so he grabbed the gun from him and hit him with it across the guys jaw. Bones were cracked, but the man did not cry out in pain. Seeming to collect himself the guy spit blood before turning back to Raphael. Even though Raph could practically smell the fear on the guy, he stood up and got into a fighting stance.

"Bring it noodle breath!" Raph snickered before cracking his fingers. The man cocked his hands up ready to fight and goes for a straight punch towards the stomach. Raphael grabbed his fist in mid punch, and he turned the man's wrist over to the side hitting a pressure point. Raph scooted in quick and elbowed the man in his collar bone. He reeled back but then was pulled back in as Raph was still latched onto him. Jumping slightly back Raph kneed him in the side of his ribs, he could hear them cracking in the progress. The man gained his footing again and quickly lept for a round house to Raph's head. Raising his elbow up, he blocked it easily. The man quickly spun around and tried to back kick Raph in the stomach. Quickly he grabbed the man's ankle in mid kick, and he twisted it over sending the man spinning to the side of the car again.

The man slowly got up, but before he could get onto his knees; Raph grabbed him by his shoulders and slammed him against the car. The more he fought the angrier Raph could feel himself getting. He brought up his fist in one hand as he held the man in the other. Before he could punch him though Leo grabbed his elbow and stopped Raph from hitting the man.

"Raph. Enough." There was that fearless leader tone again. Raphael exhaled angrily as he threw the man against the car.

"What difference does it make with these people Leo?" his voice low but harsh. These men had chosen this life, and anyone who knew anything about the Yakuza knew that once you were in you never left. At least not alive. The smoke bombs were still providing cover, but Raph didn't want to chance speaking in a normal tone just yet. He could hear Mikey and Donnie fighting off some of the other men.

"It matters because they are still people, despite their choice to be-" Leo was cut off when the man quickly got back on his feet and reached into his pocket. He swirled out a butterfly knife. Raph quickly spun him around before the knife could get to him, and smashed the man's face into the car door. He then fell down to the ground, this time knocked out. Raph looked around and quickly climbed up a light post. Donnie and Mikey were near each other the last time he saw them.

Raph looked down back to where Leo had been. From behind another man pulled out some chains, and swung it towards Leo. Leo quickly unsheathed one of his swords and let the chain wrap around it. He swung his katana lightly away and pulled the chain away from the man. Following that up was a wheel kick to the man's head. He fell to the ground fast and hard. Two more were about to attack Leo, but from above Mikey flipped off the edge of the semi truck. He dropped down in between the two and grabbed the back of their jackets. He pulled them back right into the semi truck back doors.

Mikey turned around to look at them and started to swirl his nunchucks in a fast and silly manner, trying to show off. Raph hopped down to stand by Leo. The two elder brothers shook their heads before more men came towards them with silenced guns. Mikey acted serious for a few seconds and swung his nunchucks all over the two guys that were against the semi truck doors. In three seconds, the men were knocked out on the ground at Mikey's feet. Mikey gave out a victory yell which caught the attention of some of the remaining men.

One of the men was able to get close to Mikey despite the smoke. He came up from behind and aimed his gun at the back of Mikey's head. Raph tried to get over to where they were, but two men blocked his way. Actual panic went through him. He knew that he and his brothers were bullet proof, but they had never tested the extent of it. Why would they? On the off chance of them possibly harming or killing themselves if tested out. At close range like that...

 _Mikey!_

Before the man could pull the trigger a throwing star went right by him. He looked towards where the throwing star came from but saw nothing with the smoke only now dissipating a little. From above Donnie was in mid-leap, already swirling his Bow-Staff above his head then slammed it down onto the man's back. Donnie landed right onto the man as the man was knocked out.

Knocking the last two men's skulls together with a satisfying crack, Raph watched as the smoke finally cleared up. The fight didn't last too long, much to Raph's displeasure. It had been a good fight while it lasted though.

"What now Leo?" Mikey asked as they all put the unconscious men in a pile in front of them. Their guns were in a heap next to them.

"We tie them up."

Raph snorted, "With what rope? The chains a few of them have will only tie about three." Leo walked over to the semi, opening the trailer. The women were whispering, fear dripping from their voices.

"Donnie, you have any of those new knockout gas pellets?" Raph watched as Donnie handed one to Leo.

Leo quickly threw one inside and shut the semi door. After a little time passed Leo opened the door again. Donnie and him quickly untied along with un-gagging all the now sleeping women.

"Mikey, Raph, bring the men over and put them inside. Get the driver too." Tying the men up was easy and they were all done within two minutes. Leo then had Donnie look up the nearest police station.

"Okay, I'll drive the truck there and leave through the sewers." He clicked off his wrist's computer before getting into the driver's seat, driving off.

"Heyyy, we should call April, she'll love being the first to report this!" Mikey said, all excited now.

Raph grunted, laughing lightly, "You just want an excuse to talk tah her."

"Hey man, I'm just trying to help my lady out." A goofy grin was spreading over his face.

"Now that the danger is passed, I see no reason why not to let her know," Leo said before opening one of the manholes and hoping down inside. "Get back to your patrols! Raph," Raphael grimaced, he knew that tone. "We'll talk later when we all go back home." Raph didn't answer, instead just giving a quick nod. He knew what they would be talking about later.

Mikey happily dialed April's number before getting his rocket skateboard, heading down after Leo. Raphael decided to not join his brothers in the sewers, rather taking to the rooftops heading back into the city. He hoped that he could blow off some more steam before the time he would have to head back home and face another lecture from Leo. Sighing Raph jumped across the rooftops, hoping he would get lucky and come across some more bad people tonight.

* * *

 _AN: Please let me know what you think! A special thanks to **LaDeadSh0t** for helping me out with the fight scenes! You are awesome!_

 **Doraibu is Japanese for Drive.**  
 **Oni is Japanese for Demon/Devil/Troll.**


	4. Chapter 4

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _Thank you for your patience... again! I just haven't had a lot of free time for anything, but when I do I usually write a little here and there. So thank you for all of your patience and for the new reviews I got! I hope you like this next chapter! And the next update won't be as long of a wait because I'm half way done with it already! Yay!_

* * *

Isabella paid the cab driver before heading up to the apartment Emily shared with her aunt Lindsay. Murphy following her inside to the stairs, Isabella texted Emily that she was nearly at her door.

On the fifth floor, she turned to go down the right side of the hallway before arriving at apartment 510. About to knock, Isabella quickly stepped back as the door opened.

"Oh!" Lindsay exclaimed as she nearly ran into Isabella. "I'm so sorry Izzy! I'm running late! Go right on in!" Lindsay smiled before dashing to the stairs. She taught U.S History night classes at the local community college. Though she was a great teacher Lindsay could sometimes be scatter brained.

Isabella locked the door behind her as she took off her shoes. She let Murphy off his leash before she headed towards the living room. Soft piano music began to play and Isabella slowly rounded the corner to see Emily playing. She'd never heard Emily play before. She would always tell Isabella that she was not comfortable playing in front of people. Listening to her play so beautifully she wondered why she didn't want to show off her skill. The song she was playing was slow and sad but near the end there was a hopeful tune to it.

When Emily's fingers stopped dancing over the keys, Isabella couldn't help herself and started to silently applaud. She watched as her friend's back stiffened and looked to see her.

"Izzy! You should have told me you were here!" Emily got up from the piano stool and pouted. Her cheeks and the bridge of her nose were turning pink, causing Isabella to giggle.

"But if I had done that you wouldn't have continued to play. It sounded so beautiful Em. You should try performing at Mallory's sometime."

Emily shyly smiled but shook her head, "I'll leave that to you and Last Century to entertain there." Her eyes widened then, "Hey, have you called Bobby to tell him he'll have to use Ryan this week? Your stitches won't be out by Friday right?"

Isabella felt her heart drop, "They might be... but might not also. Crap, I hadn't even thought of that."

Last Century was an Alternative Rock band Isabella would play keyboard with most weeks. They would all practice on weekend nights and performed weekly at a music bar named Mallory's in Manhattan. Bobby was the band's lead singer and guitarist along with writing all the band's songs. Isabella had gone to Mallory's with Emily back when they first became friends. She had seen the band perform and knew she wanted to be a part of it.

At first, Bobby had been arrogant and rude to her, saying that they weren't looking for any new members. The band's drummer Ren, had told Bobby that they should at least give her a chance to show them what she could do. Isabella was a decent singer but her skills at playing electric keyboard won over Ren and Tyler, the band's bassist. Bobby had been reluctant but could see that she did have talent. She had gone to their practice that Saturday and had been performing with them ever since. Over time, Bobby got over his issue having a girl in his band and Isabella now only called him a sexist jokingly. She would always tell him that he should focus less on her being female and stick to making his songs good for them.

Isabella sighed, "I'll call him tomorrow." She went and sat down on the couch, where the TV was on but muted. "How's Tessa's potty training going?"

Emily grumbled, taking a seat next to her, "Fine, just messy sometimes."

"Yuck!" Isabella scrunched up her nose but smiled.

Emily let out a soft laugh, "Wait till you have a kid Iz. You don't know the real meaning of gross. But," Emily smiled softly, "You won't care as long as you can see that adorable trusting smile they give you."

"Melts the heart huh?"

She nodded, "In a different way, but yes."

Murphy walked up to the two girls, licking at Isabella's socks. He quietly settled there.

"Oh!" Emily said pulling out her phone, "Did you get the invite Olivia sent out about her birthday party?"

"On the way over, yeah."

"I'm able to go! Lindsay said she could watch Tessa that night." Isabella nodded, staring at the ceiling.

"Olivia is turning twenty-four already... Next is my birthday."

"Yeah! Twenty-three years for you. Then it'll be my birthday the next month after!"

Isabella smiled, "You'll like being twenty-two Em. I've enjoyed it."

The two girls sat in quiet silence for a couple minutes, Isabella staring at the ceiling and Emily continued to fiddle on her phone. The silence between them was not uncomfortable. There really had never been any uncomfortable silences with them since they had started hanging out. It was one of the reasons Isabella liked Emily so much. They could just sit next to each other and enjoy each others company. No need for constant mindless chatter about the latest trends or celebrity gossip and the two were all right with that. Isabella found it incredibly peaceful being around Emily.

"Oh!" Emily suddenly got up and went into her bedroom, being extra quiet to not wake Tessa.

"What are you doing?" Isabella whispered, her left eyebrow raised. Emily softly shut the door behind her before walking back over to the couch, she had her laptop in hand.

"I think I found something online about the vigilante."

Isabella's back straightened up, "Really!? What?"

"It wasn't easy to find but there's this blogger who claims he was saved by," she raised her hands and did air quotes, "'The Beast of New York'."

Eyebrow raised again, Isabella looked at the screen, "Beast?"

Emily nodded, bringing up the site, "He says that he was on his way home with a couple of buddies when they stumbled upon a robbery taking place. The robbers were about to attack them when he claims this large person jumping down from somewhere and quote, 'kicked the living shit' out of the robbers. He says it happened really fast and the 'Beast' jumped up to the closest fire escape and vanished. He was saved."

Isabella looked carefully at the blog, the words, **giant** , **inhumanly** **fast** , **crazy** **strong** popped out at her.

"I wonder if maybe I could somehow meet up with this guy..."

Emily grinned, "Already thought of that." She clicked to a link on the screen before Isabella saw " **monthly meetings** " in bold font. "Apparently others found him who have also claimed to have been saved by the vigilante. Maybe we could go and check it out?" Emily handed her the laptop. Isabella nodded before looking at the page more closely.

 _The next meeting is only two weeks away...!_

The meeting place was in Brooklyn, the Flatlands, which if Isabella remembered correctly was a residential area. Isabella was going to go back to the previous page when Emily's quiet gasp caught her attention.

Looking up, she saw Emily staring at the TV with a sad expression on her face. On the screen was the news with the caption reading, 'Yakuza men arrested, lost women found', under the pretty reporter.

"Turn on the volume a bit?" Emily did, keeping it low cause of Tessa sleeping and the two leaned forward to hear better.

"What we do know is that the semi truck was parked directly in front of the police station behind me. When the police searched the truck they were astonished to find nine Yakuza members tied up and twenty-four scared young women. The women have been questioned and from their statements they don't know much about what happened. They only know that someone came and fought with the men before waking up to the police finding them. We'll continue to update our report as more information becomes available and the story unfolds. This is April O'Neal, channel 9 news. Back to you Dave."

Isabella was stuck on when the pretty reporter had said someone had fought with the Yakuza members. "The Yakuza is the Japanese mafia right?"

"I think so... God that would be terrifying, being kidnapped and sold into slavery like those women almost were..."

A loud cry came from Emily's bedroom. She turned off the news and got up quickly to check on Tessa. Isabella looked back at the blog. She refreshed the main page and was surprised to see someone had just posted. It was a post on how 'the Beast' was probably the one who saved the women tonight.

 _Damn this guy's fast!_

Isabella had been thinking the same thing after listening to the report.

Emily came back out when Tessa had fallen back to sleep, Isabella had finished reading the recent posts. The more she read the more she was sure that the guy and she had been saved by the same person. Emily pulled out her phone again.

"So going back to Olivia's birthday, I was looking online and found these sexy dresses that I think we should get for the party!"

Isabella set the laptop down on the coffee table before looking at Emily's phone. She saw a teal green club dress and a cobalt blue dress in a similar style next to it. The teal dress had a mock neck cutout with a low v-neck and the dress ended mid thigh. It was the right amount of sexy but not showing off too much which Isabella loved.

"I adore the teal one!"

Emily grinned, "I knew you would! What do you think of the blue one for me?"

The blue dress had a halter neck, with a small cut out in the middle of the bust that went down to the upper half of the stomach. It was a slinky wrap front dress that would hug Emily's curves so well.

"Buy it! Whatever the cost!"

Emily laughed, "We can both easily afford them."

Isabella looked at the prices. The teal dress was $95.98 and the cobalt dress was $75.99.

"I don't know... I've been saving up to buy some Egyptian cotton bedsheets."

Emily sighed, "I know that it's just a dress, but sometimes you got to treat yourself."

"Buying fantastic bedsheets would be treating myself!" Isabella giggled, but could tell she already liked the dress a lot.

 _It really is beautiful and I'd be able to wear it more than once when out..._

"Send me the link so I can continue to convince myself." Emily squealed happily before tapping her phone's screen.

Isabella picked up Murphy, who had been asleep at her feet. He woke up a little but settled back down when she placed him on her lap. Seeing Murphy sleeping caused Isabella to yawn.

"It's getting pretty late and," Emily yawned, "once one of us starts yawning, it'll just go back and forth between us." Isabella yawned again before giggling.

"I'll text you tomorrow Em," Isabella got up before giving Emily a side hug, Murphy still asleep in her right arm. "Careful," Isabella said, pointing out her stitches before Emily gently hugged her.

"Safe way home girl. We'll talk more about the party and the 'Beast' later."

"Sounds good!" Isabella put on her shoes before waving over her shoulder. The five flights of stairs were easier going down, even with Murphy adding some weight to her right side. Setting down the now mostly awake puppy, Isabella looked to the somewhat populated city street. It was now a little chilly out, the roads and streets not as crowded as before. Looking up at the night sky Isabella inhaled deeply. The city didn't always smell pleasant but that night the air was crisp with just a hint of smoke in the air.

 _Smoke?_

Looking around for the smoker, her eyes widened when she saw a small building across the street, one of the top building's windows had flames coming out of it. Isabella quickly took out her phone and dialed 911.

"911 what is your emergency?"

"There's a small fire in a small apartment building!"

"What is the buildings address?"

"It's at 638 RockawayAve in Brooklyn!" Isabella looked around to see if anyone else had noticed the fire. She picked up Murphy as he began to whine at her.

"Can you tell if there's anyone in the apartment?"

"I don't know!" Isabella looked back at the flaming window.

"Ma'am calm down, the fire department is on their way." Isabella nodded before realizing that the lady on the other line couldn't see her.

"Yes."

"What is your name Miss?"

"Isabella..." The flames looked like they were getting worse by the second. She prayed that they wouldn't spread to the other apartments before the fire department came. Her eyes were fixed on the burning window. Suddenly, Isabella saw something quickly burst through one of the other windows to the burning apartment. The dark figure went for the alleyway next to the building.

Without thinking, Isabella ran out into the street, getting honks and people yelling expletives at her.

"Isabella? Can you still hear me?" The 911 operator sounded worried. Isabella continued to the alley, not really hearing the woman's voice. She recognized that large figure!

 _It's him!_

When she rounded the alley's entrance she could only see someone lying on their side. Isabella rushed over, looking to see a young man no older than herself, wheezing.

"Hello? Isabella?" This time, the woman's voice registered with her.

"Someone just got a man out of the burning building. He's wheezing from the smoke I think, what do I do!?" Her voice became frantic at the end. The 911 operator didn't miss a beat before giving Isabella instructions.

"Okay, the first thing you can do is loosen any tight clothing he has on."

Isabella put Murphy down, his leash around her wrist as she also put her phone on speaker before setting it down on the ground. Looking at the guy, she undid his top shirt buttons then moved on to unbuckling his belt and unbuttoned his pants.

"Okay! Now what?"

"How shallow is his breathing?"

Pushing her hair away with her hands, Isabella put her ear near the man's mouth and nose. "Pretty shallow."

"Do you see any wounds on his neck or chest?"

Scanning over, she didn't see any of that but saw that the man's hands and arms were burned, blistering a little. "No, no wounds."

"Do you know CPR?"

"No! Is the fire department coming soon?"

"Isabella," the woman's voice was firm but comforting, "Yes, and I'll walk you through what to do."

Isabella swallowed thickly, anxiety fully engulfing her as she realized she was going to help keep this person alive until help arrived.

 _Stop it! Help him, freak out later Izzy!_

"Okay..." her voice shook.

"Place the heel of one of your hands on the breastbone, between the nipples."

Isabella did it, "Now what?"

"Place your other hand over the other and position your body directly over your hands. Now give thirty chest compressions. These compressions should be fast and hard. Press down about two inches into the chest Isabella. Each time, let the chest rise completely. I'll count with you."

Breathing in deeply, Isabella steadied her body. "Okay, one, two, three," she quickly did all thirty compressions before the 911 operator told her to now lift up his chin with two fingers, at the same time tilt his head back by pushing down on the forehead.

"Now listen carefully to his breathing."

Isabella put her ear near his nose and mouth again.

"Watch his chest movements too. Can you feel the breath on your cheek?"

Waiting, Isabella let out a short breath when she heard him breathe in and not wheeze.

"He's breathing better I think!"

"That's wonderful, now put him on his side. His chest should avoid any pressure and keep monitoring his breathing until help arrives. You did great Isabella."

Relief swept over her as she put the man on his side, his back placed against her knees. She could care less that the lower half of her legs were uncomfortable. Murphy was now fully awake, sniffing the man's hand before suddenly looking up and began barking at something. A little dazed now, Isabella looked up to see what had caught her Murphy's attention. Her eyes widened when she saw a large form looking down from the next building over. For a moment, the figure was as still as a statue before moving away, out of sight.

Isabella would have called out to him again, but she heard the fire truck horns and ambulance sirens. Waving over some firefighters and EMTs they took over for her as one of them brought her aside.

"Miss, are you alright?" a deep voice asked her, Isabella was still looking up at where she had seen the vigilante. She simply nodded in response.

"Please step this way." Nodding again, Isabella looked to where the EMT was leading her. She walked with Murphy to one of the ambulances.

She told the EMTs that she had not been in the building nor had she inhale any smoke. She had simply been the one to call 911 and helped the man when someone else had rescued him from the building. She was dismissed by the EMTs before being told to wait for the police to show up so they could take her statement. Isabella focused on her breathing as she sat down on the edge of the sidewalk. Murphy whined, but she couldn't focus on him at the moment.

 _Two nights I've had to deal with shocking circumstances..._

Isabella wondered if she would be recovering from tonight's shock anytime soon. She just couldn't believe she might have saved someone's life, and had seen the vigilante again!

"Miss Ortiz," Isabella looked up to see Detective Harris and Lee in front of her.

"You seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time lately," Detective Lee noted. Standing up, she greeted the two detectives.

"Or the right place and time," Detective Harris countered, "We were informed that you were the one to call 911," she nodded a little robotically. Relaying to the men what had happened that night did not lessen the stiff feeling in her neck nor the overall haziness she felt.

"You saw nothing else about the vigilante tonight? Nothing new?"

She shook her head, "I'm sorry, I just saw him for a moment before he moved away from the rooftops edge."

"Which rooftop?" Detective Lee said, his eyes narrowing a little.

Isabella pointed before the two detectives said their quick thanks and goodbyes before they raced to the building. She watched as the firemen hosed down the fire, it hadn't spread too much thankfully. She glanced at the ambulance and saw that the man was awake with an air-mask ventilator over his face with EMTs attending to his hands and arm burns. The man turned and his eyes locked with hers. With his free hand, he raised it and motioned her over. Quickly, yet at the same time a little hesitantly she made her way to him.

Now that she wasn't panicking and he was conscious, Isabella noticed that the guy was actually really cute. His eyes were a nice light brown with chestnut colored hair and deep olive skin.

He smiled when she stopped in front of him, "They are telling me you saved my life." It wasn't a question.

"Oh! No... I just called 911 and when you were rescued from the building... I... I just followed what the 911 operator told me to do when you weren't really breathing..." Isabella rambled nervously. She didn't break him out of his burning apartment. She had just been a temporary tool to help him breath when no professionals had been around.

The man shook his head before taking her left hand in his now bandaged right one, "Whatever happened, you did help me and I'm grateful for that."

Isabella quickly licked her now dry lips, "You're welcome."

The man coughed a bit before looking back at her, "What's your name?"

"Isabella, most people call me Izzy..." The man smiled, Isabella could see through the clear air-mask that his teeth were perfect.

"It's nice to meet you Izzy. I'm Donovan, Don for short." He gave her left hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. Isabella could feel herself smile when Murphy began to whine again.

"I gotta head home... I'm glad you're alright."

Isabella turned before Donovan stopped her by asking, "Could I get your number?"

Turning back, eyes wide now she blinked quickly. "Umm..."

Don smiled, "I know that we just met. And under very weird circumstances." He coughed once before continuing to speak, "It's just..." His eyes lowered to the ground for a moment before returning to her face, "I was taught that if you save someone's life, you're responsible for that person's life for the rest of your life because you're the one that kept them here alive."

Isabella first instinct was to laugh at such a ridiculous line before realizing it wasn't a line.

 _The man almost died tonight..._

And looking back at him, the sincerity in his eyes and kind smile made Isabella feel like she wanted to know him a little better.

"Okay..." Isabella gave him her number, one of the EMTs was kind enough to write it down for Don. At first, Don insisted that his hands were fine but the EMT was having none of that, telling him that he needed to rest his hands. Isabella said goodbye before hailing a cab.

"You'll be hearing from me Izzy!" Don shouted a little over the sound of the light traffic, causing himself to cough again a little. Isabella smiled and nodded before getting into the taxi.

The ride back was mostly silent for Isabella. The only sound coming from the taxi's radio, which was playing some nice R&B track. Her mind continued to race as she and Murphy got closer to her place.

 _I can't believe I saw the vigilante again..._

She let out a short breath and chuckled once.

 _I gave a man my number tonight... He was really attractive too!_

Paying the driver, Isabella entered her apartment building and took Murphy right up to their home. Letting him off his leash, Isabella slowly got ready for bed.

When she was about to begin her nightly meditation she received a text from an unknown number. Tapping her screen she read, _"Hey, it's Don. I hope you got home safely."_

She smiled and replied back, _"Yeah I did. Are you okay?"_

" _Yes, I'm staying in a hotel until I can get my apartment all fixed up."_

" _That's good to hear."_

" _Yes, so... Hopefully you won't find this to be too forward or weird of me to ask but I want to take you out to dinner to show you my gratitude. How's the Masa at 7 pm this Sunday sound?"_

Staring at her screen, she quickly looked up the restaurant he mentioned. Isabella was surprised to read that it was an expensive Japanese restaurant by the Columbus Circle right by Central Park. She had Sunday's off from work and normally danced that day but with her stitches and the possibility of them still not being out...

Isabella decided to just go for it. _"Sure, I'll see you then :)"_

His reply back was instantaneous, _"Great! I look forward to seeing you then!"_ Another text followed that one, _"You have some of the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. Goodnight Izzy."_

That made her bite her lip in an anxious way.

 _Well... He won't know that the color is fake unless I decide to tell him._

Completing her meditation session, Isabella set her head down and closed her eyes.

That night she dreamed of the world being in danger and superheroes and vigilantes saving the day before she came face to face with a large dark figure. Even though she could not clearly see this person, she felt safe with them and reached out her hand to them. She watched as the dark form look at her hand, hesitating but then began to reach for her hand. Right when Isabella was about to feel his hand she was rudely awoken by her first alarm going off. Sighing in frustration she snoozed it quickly.

* * *

 _So just as a disclaimer : I have no personal experience giving CPR! I just Googled things and if it is wrong, please PM me and let me know cause I hate being inaccurate about things! Also all of the places I mention are real places but I will be putting in some fictional aspects to them when it is needed. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next which is mainly starring Raph and his P.O.V on this scene!_


	5. Chapter 5

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _Thank you for your patience... again! I'm horrible, I know it's been a long wait! I mentioned this in my other story about my roommate not paying our cable/wifi bill on time and she still hasn't done anything about it -_- We still don't have wifi at my place (never live with lazy/irresponsible people ugh!) which means I have to type everything out on my phone, using data or whatever. I'm not going to let it stop me from posting! I hope you enjoy this Raph POV chapter!_

* * *

Raph's plan had been to stay out longer than normal, knowing he was getting into even more trouble with Leo but didn't care right now. He decided to take a quick route back around his usual turf. Looking at his T-phone, Raph knew Leo was gone by this time. His brother was such a control maniac. Even though Splinter now allowed them to patrol and defend the people of this city he still gave them a curfew, which Leo would never disobey. The only reason they had all broken their father's rule about leaving their home before was because Raph and his brothers could not stand idly by as the Foot clan caused chaos.

With no activity from them for over a year now, Splinter was comfortable with the brothers patrolling the city at night.

Raph continued to leap from rooftop to rooftop before he came across a man trying to put a struggling girl in a car. Seeing red, Raph silently jumped down behind the guy, the alleyway providing a good cover before he quickly grabbed the guy back into the alley too. In five seconds flat the guy was out cold before he could react. The girl was running back towards the bar strip, probably where she had met this dirtbag. Raph could hear the girl talking to 911 so he knew he didn't have a lot of time.

Holding up the guy Raph saw that there were keys in the ignition. Staying in the alley, Raph looked to see if anyone was near before he put half his hand over the guy's mouth before taking his other hand, gripping the guy's right wrist. He swiftly broke both of the guy's wrists. The guy didn't scream, which surprised Raph a bit. Conscious or not, broken bones hurt! He could remember the time he had broken his toes. He had still been a kid at the time, the mutation just beginning. The reason he did this, break the guy's wrists, was because he didn't want him to wake up and drive before the cops showed up. Putting the scumbag in the driver's seat, Raph cursed.

 _You could have just thrown his keys down the gutter... But..._

He tried reasoning.

 _He could have just hailed a cab if I hadn't incapacitated him..._

Raph shook his head, shutting the car door harshly. A little too harshly, the window cracked. Not horribly, but it was completely noticeable.

"Screw it," Raph took the handle of his sai and easily broke the window.

He stealthy got to the roofs and continued jumping across buildings until he came across a guy assaulting a woman. The young woman was crying as the guy held a knife to her throat from behind. Taking out a throwing star, Raph aimed for the guy's right hand that held the blade. The star zipped through the air and would have hit its mark... if the girl hadn't moved! Raph's eyes widened as she pushed against her attacker and was able to twist out of his hold. Unfortunately, the star ended up hitting the guy in the space that lay between the neck and shoulder. The guy howled in pain as the girl took off towards the street. Raph cursed, panicking. He got down and knocked the guy out fast. Unconscious on the ground, Raph inspected where he had gotten the guy with the throwing star.

 _Do I take it out?! I can't leave it though!_

He wished Donnie were there, he would know what to do.

 _ **Donnie!**_

Before even really thinking it through, he speed dialed Donnie.

"Raph?"

"Donnie, I need a favor!"

 _More like a life saver...!_

"Are you in your lab?" Raph couldn't take his eyes off the blood spilling out around the star.

"Yes... What's going on? You sound strange."

"Shut up! I need your help right now!"

"Okay, okay! What is it?"

Raph inhaled deeply, still looking at all the blood, "If a person got stabbed with a blade in between the neck and shoulder, what should I do?"

There was no pause before Donnie said, "Call 911 Raph, why are you calling me about that? How badly is the person bleeding!?" Raph checked, scanning over where the star hit a little more closely.

"Badly Don! Should I take out the blade?"

"No! The knife is likely blocking blood vessels that were severed! Call the police Raph! Get the guy help!"

Raph balled his left hand, and hit the building wall next to him, "Donnie, it's one of our throwing stars that's in the guy!" Raph heard Donnie's gasp before furious typing.

"Call 911 now Raph! I'll tell you what to do after!"

All Raph told the 911 operator was the address and that the guy had been stabbed. Immediately after he called Donnie back.

"Donnie, what do I do?"

"You have the first aid kit I tell everyone to take with?"

"Yeah," Raph took out the small box from his shoulder pack.

"Pull the star out and use the plastic wrap from the kit to seal the wound. Wrap it around good and tight. He won't bleed out as quickly if you do this."

Working speedily, Raph would never admit this but pulling out the blade made him want to hurl. He wasn't used to this and knew he could never do what Donnie did, fixing them up all the time when they got hurt. They however never got this hurt. Tying off the plastic, Raph made it to the roof when he heard the sirens.

"Help arriving? Donnie asked.

"Yeah..." Raph watched as the EMTs quickly got the guy in the ambulance. Once it was out of sight Raph let out a long sigh of relief. Donnie heard that which was probably why he started asking questions.

"Raphael, what do you think you were doing using throwing stars!? You know Sensei says we can only use those when things are extremely dangerous!"

Raph growled, "I know!" he lowered his voice, not wanting to wake anyone as he passed by from roof to roof. "I wasn't thinking, just wanted ta practice my aim and then the lady moved... messin' up where the star went..." he sighed again as he stopped on a dark rooftop. He could hear Donnie typing again.

"Just come home Raph. Leo is already waiting for you."

"Yeah, fine... and Donnie?"

"Yes?" the typing paused.

Raph cracked his neck, popping it slightly, "Don't tell Leo about this..." he then added in a lower voice, "Please?" There was a moment of silence that was long enough to make him worry.

"Fine, but you owe me big Raph."

"Whatever you want man, thanks."

Hanging up, Raph felt exhausted. Deciding to head home he began leaping down to lower rooftop buildings when he came across a burning apartment. Normally, Raph and his brothers would just make an anonymous call to the fire department and then hope for the best. Since it was on the top floor of the building Raph decided to hell with it, his night was already going bad.

 _Might as well help out whoever's sorry ass is in there..._

The smoke would provide cover and thanks to his mutated turtle genes, Raph and his brothers were excellent swimmers and with that came the perk of being able to hold their breath for a very long time. The streets by the building were pretty populated so he decided to just go through one of the apartment's windows. They were thankfully large enough so he could get in without breaking any of the walls edges connected to the window. Getting inside, Raph looked to see nearly the entire place was engulfed in flames. Eyes burning a bit from the smoke, Raph spotted someone. A man with burns on his hands and arms. The way his body looked made Raph think that the guy had been thrown back. Looking at what looked like it was once a kitchen, he could guess what had possibly happened to cause the fire. Looking around in the other rooms as best he could, Raph found no one else there.

"Let's get you outta here." Raph carefully lifted the guy up, placing him over his shoulder. After a moment of thought, he decided he needed to get the man out of here quickly. Raph broke through one window, the one that would let him out to an alley, before skillfully landing down to the alley floor. The sudden sounds of car horns and breaks screeching caught Raph's attention. Listening closely through the noise he could hear someone on foot getting closer to the alley.

Raph gently set the guy down before getting up to the roof of the building next to the burning one. He was about to leave but stopped when he recognized the person who ran over to the man. It was the same lady he had saved the night before! She was trying to remain calm as she put her phone down and listened to what the 911 operator was telling her to do. He could hear the conversation easily.

"Do you know CPR?"

"No! Is the fire department coming!?" The lady seemed to be in over her head as she started to panic.

"Isabella, yes and I will walk you through what to do."

Raphael knew he should move on but... he wanted to see what she would do.

 _Isabella's her name..._

It suited her well he decided. Seeing her tonight actually helped Raph's overall mood. He just watched as the beauty Isabella started performing chest compressions. From how she was acting, she was genuinely worried for the man. He had breathed in some smoke and had some minor burns but would be fine. Raph could tell that she wasn't a nurse or doctor from how panicked she was. After finishing the chest compressions, Isabella told the 911 operator that the guy was breathing better. Raph could see the tension leave her shoulders as she adjusted the guy to be on his side. Her shirt caught his attention and reading it he wondered if the nail technician part was true.

The little dog that Raph hadn't even noticed was there started barking up at him. Looking to her face, Raph found her looking up at him, eyes wide as he guessed she recognized him too. Frozen, he just watched her watch him, praying that the moon would not come out from behind the clouds keeping him covered by the buildings shadow. Raph didn't want to move, thinking when would he have a beautiful woman look at him and not freak out.

 _Just a few more moments, please..._

The sound of sirens broke the spell and Raph tore his eyes away as he moved swiftly away from the rooftops edge.

Going home for real, he got down before lifting up a manhole cover.

The sewers did not offer Raph much distraction, he mulled over what had just happened.

The young lady, Isabella, had seen him again and had seemed intrigued from what he could tell. Her expression was surprised and then curious when she had seen him tonight. That expression caused his feelings from last night of never wanting to see her again to change. A part of Raph, more than he would like to admit wished that Leo and he could switch back patrol routes, but he knew if he asked it would look strange and his brother's, Leo especially would ask questions. But even if Raph didn't care about that, which he did, it was none of his brother's business why he did things if it didn't affect them.

Turning the corner Raph shook his head, trying to get himself together. He **should** stop thinking about the human woman Isabella. Even if Raph had the guts to try and speak to her, he knew without a doubt that he would scare her. At the very least creep her out if he tried to talk to her from the shadows.

Raph and his brothers had talked about girls in the past. Growing up in the age of technology had allowed them to see everything they would never have without the Internet or TV. Seeing women portrayed in all sorts of ways had caused the brothers to develop a very one-sided attraction to human females. It especially sucked during the spring when their animal sides would strongly encourage them to find a mate.

Leo, Donnie, and himself thinking of what they are were convinced that no girl would want them. Donnie had said that the statistical chances of any woman to be interested in them were 3% out of the entire United States population, according to a study he had read on Beastiality. Those statistics didn't deter Mikey. He shamelessly flirted with April whenever she would visit. Raph did like April's company and was glad she didn't let Mikey's flirting affect her. After she had helped him rescue his brothers from the Shredder and for treating him and his family with kindness and respect he had come to trust her.

Now that she had gotten a new job at channel 9 she was so busy normally, her visits to the sewers had become random. April was an exception to what he and his brothers had believed to be true. She accepted them, how they looked and she and even Vern in a way, could be around them and treat them like they were normal. April's presence had made things shift with the brother's idea of girls.

Leo didn't seem to want to hope and Raph had been right there with him. Donnie mostly just tried to not think about it, focusing on his inventions, more so recently with the police trying to find them. Mikey was the most hopeful out of all of them. With Mikey, he had always thought people would like them if they were given a chance and got to know them. Raph used to think it was wishful thinking and still did, but he was now finding himself wondering.

There were very few things in this world that made Raphael afraid. His family in danger was at the top of the short list, and the Foot clan coming back was nearing the bottom of the list with the lack of activity in the last year. Raph hated admitting when things made him afraid, to anyone, even himself. Since he could remember did he try to hide his fears from everyone. He had developed a good poker face. It was his temper that got in the way. He would be needing his temper in check and his poker face on when he faced Leo tonight.

Finding the fake brick on the wall and pressing it in, revealed the door to their new home. Moving another false brick aside, Raph entered in the security code. Donnie had made a lot of upgrades since they had moved to this place. It made their home more secure but it had some drawbacks, like not being able to come and go as Raph pleased without everyone knowing.

The door opened and Mikey was there, a goofy grin on his face that changed to a slight smirk. Raph's eyes narrowed, his calm now destroyed by that smug expression. He told Mikey to never make that face unless he was looking for a fight. Mikey just liked to rile up Raph when he was bored cause he thought it was hilarious when Raph lost his cool.

"Not now Mikey!" Raph walked around his youngest brother, just wanting to get the lecture from Leo over with.

"Leo's in the dojo dude!"

Sighing quietly, Raph trudged off towards their new dojo. Sliding the doors open, he saw Leo meditating. His brother opened his eyes, a calm expression on his face.

"Please have a seat Raph," Leo gestured to the mat in front of him. Raph sat, closing his eyes and waited.

"You smell like smoke." Raph's eyes snapped open and glared.

"I ain't smoking so just forget that speech ya got prepared for that one."

Leo just stared at Raphael before raising a brow and saying, "Did anyone see you in the burning building then?"

Raph grimaced but shook his head in refusal, "The guy I saved was unconscious. Someone had called 911 so the guy was in good hands when I left." Leo simply nodded.

The two sat in silence, the tension rising for Raphael. Leo finally cleared his throat before speaking.

"Raph, you know that our main job is to protect people." Raph gave a quick nod. "Even when we face some of the worst people imaginable, it's not our job to play executioner."

"I wasn't!" Raph said, his anger visibly showing. He took a deep breath, trying to bring himself back to being somewhat calm.

"Regardless of your intentions, you would have seriously hurt that man if I had not intervened."

Raph glared at Leo, his calm slipping away again, "You don't know that. I coulda just been trying ta scare the guy by puttin my fist through the car door. And-" Leo cut him off.

"You weren't going to do that Raph." The way Leo said it, with such conviction made Raph see red.

Leo seemed to be expecting his reaction, flipping out of his reach but Raph moving slightly faster was able to grab Leo's ankle. He could see the surprise in Leo's eyes before he threw him through the dojo's doors. Once Leo was able to get his footing it was too late. Raph already was able to drop kick him towards their home's living area. Leo got up fast this time, ready to fight back. Raph ran towards him only to get flipped over the couch. He landed right on the coffee table, smashing it in the process. Leo side vaulted over the couch, looking angrily at Raphael.

"Stop this Raph!" Not listening, Raph began throwing a series of punches. But Leo still more level headed, was able to dodge all of them, pissing Raph off even more. Leo then managed to flip Raph over him, grabbing his shoulders and threw him, Raph smashing into the one of the couches. He got up and faced Leo again, still seeing red.

"Raph stop!"

Still not listening, Raph side kicked him in the stomach but Leo caught it before it could connect with him. Raph spun around as Leo still latched onto him. Frustrated and pissed Raph hit Leo across the face. At the same time Leo quickly got in a hit and for a moment, they were both down. Getting up, the two roundhouse kicked each other at the same time, thus blocking each other from harming the other. Raph, getting fed up with all the blocks Leo was putting up, tackled him to the ground using his superior size against Leo. On the ground, they rolled, punching and elbowing each other as this went on.

Without any warning, Raph felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, feeling someone grabbing at a pressure point. Leo was in a backward arm and wrist lock.

" **Enough with all this senseless fighting!** " Splinter said, his voice furious.

He flipped Raph onto his shell and threw Leo to the side in a shoulder lock. Splinter used his foot to lock Leo's arms in place and used his cane against Raph's chest.

"Both of you will fix what you have broken and will spend five hours in the Hashi!"

Letting them go, Master Splinter looked at his boys before going to his room to meditate.

Raph glanced at Leo to see an ashamed expression on his face. Raph huffed before he began collecting the wood chunks from the broken coffee table. Cleaning up the mess the dojo had become didn't take as long as Raph had expected. The silence between Leo and him during the clean up was for the best Raph decided.

Donnie had gone into his lab and Mikey had retreated to his room. Even if the two other brother's had wanted to help them they all knew they wouldn't have been allowed to. When the mess was gone and things minus the doors and coffee table were back in place, Raph was calm and prepared for his punishment in the Hashi. Splinter reappeared and the two brothers followed after their father.

The only thing Raph liked about the Hashi was he had time to knit. Sure he was balancing on a tricycle but he liked being about to knit things. It gave him something constructive to focus on. He guessed that was the whole point behind Splinter giving him this specific task to do while down here.

 _Well, I can do this, five hours is nothing..._

* * *

 _BIG **BIG** Disclaimer! I have never had any medical training, I've just been Googling and researching the best I can, (on my phone since there's no wifi). The plastic wrap for stab wounds was something I came across and decided to just go with after not finding much else on the topic of how to treat stab wounds. Don't take this information as fact, talk to your doctor if you are really curious about it._

 _Big thanks to the people who have favorited and followed this story and my other story! ^^ Please let me know what you think and I will try to get another update in this month! I will do my best so that the wait will not be THAT long again!_

 _A special shout out to **LaDeadSh0t** for helping with the fight scenes again!_


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _Guess who finally has wifi? ME! Yay! I hope you like this next chapter! Please let me know by reviewing!_

* * *

Isabella felt so odd not being able to dance. Before her stitches, she danced almost every day. The time she had once used to practice she now used to try and find more information on the vigilante. There were times where she would have to do other things cause her eyes could only take so much strain from her computer screen. She tried teaching Murphy new tricks, he now knew how to shake hands which made Isabella very proud. Murphy was her first dog since her mom was allergic to anything with fur. But even with her puppy as a nice distraction Isabella wanted to dance. So she did everything she could think of, she organized her studio apartment, color coordinated her closet, she even started a new painting which ended up becoming a picture at night of a man in black standing over the ledge of a building. She knew she was obsessing but couldn't seem to help it. Maybe if she had been able to dance her focus would not keep coming back to the vigilante.

It was Thursday night finally and she was waiting for Syn to come over. Every Thursday Isabella made a new nail tutorial/nail health video she would post to her blog, **IzzyPopNails**. Syn or Emily helped out a lot. They got free manicures and Isabella got more feedback on how good or weird her ideas were.

She got her camera and nail supplies all set up before she quickly recorded her opening to the video, explaining what she would be doing that night. She had been getting a lot of requests to do a 'how to properly take care of your nails' or other types of nail health videos lately so she decided to just do something quick and simple on taking care of nails this week.

 _Syn should be here soon..._

Isabella looked at her navy clock before Murphy began to bark at the door. She got up from her set-up nail station to get the door. She looked to see Syn through the door's peephole. Opening the door, Syn smiled and her dog Sting, a small chihuahua came bursting through and started playing with Murphy.

"Hey Izzy!" The two girls hugged before Isabella let her inside.

"What will you be painting on me tonight?" she wiggled her fingers and smiled. Her smile was electric.

"Did you get your teeth whitened again?"

"I did!" She smiled wider and revealed a little piece of green lettuce in between her two front bottom teeth. Isabella cracked up, pointing to her own bottom teeth, bending over holding her side. Syn pulled a compact mirror out of her bag and laughed.

"That's hysterical!" She tried getting it out but was laughing that it took some time before she got the tiny piece of lettuce.

"Let's do this!" Isabella nodded as she turned on the proper lights and angled the camera down so that the main focus was on their hands.

Half way through the video recording, Isabella noticed that Syn hadn't made a sound. During the recordings Syn usually had a hard time being quiet, just cause it wasn't in her nature to be that way, but today she was stone still and quiet. Only moving when Isabella would move her hands. When she was done and turned off the camera, Syn was still quiet as she looked at what Isabella had done.

"Are you okay Syn?"

Syn nodded and smiled up at her, but it looked forced. Isabella raised an eyebrow, letting her know she wasn't buying that she was okay. Syn sighed, her eyes flickering to the coffee table.

"I saw your computer..." Isabella's eyebrows rose even higher.

 _What does that..._

She looked to see her laptop displaying her vigilante research.

"Okay..." Isabella was confused, "What's wrong Syn?"

Syn pulled herself up from her chair and sat on the couch in front of the laptop, looking at the screen.

"Have you actually seen this vigilante?" Her usual peppy voice gone, she sounded nervous. Isabella paused before sitting down next to her.

"Why?" Syn's grey eyes snapped to Isabella.

"I have... I've seen him jump from the rooftops across the street from here when I've been walking Sting at night... Not every night but..."

Isabella's eyes widened as the fear became apparent on Syn's face.

"Why are you afraid?"

Syn looked at her, shock and disbelief written all over her face, "How are you not!? Someone's out there playing judge, jury and executioner!"

Isabella put her hands on Syn's shoulders to steady her now shaking body. Sting whined as he came up to Syn, licking her exposed leg through her ripped jeans.

"We have no way of knowing that person is going around killing people. In fact, this person saved my life."

Isabella explained her encounters with the vigilante. Syn's eyes got wide just like Emily's but she seemed to be getting even more scared.

"Oh my god Izzy..." Syn looked down before she pursed her lips, "Why did you fight back against the gunman? The guy just wanted your wallet."

Isabella pulled back a bit, blinking in surprise, "Cause I thought I could handle it. I didn't want to hand over my-" Syn cut her off.

"But you **weren't** able to handle it! You could have been killed!"

"I know!" Isabella tried to compose herself, she didn't want to fight with Syn. "Which is why I'm grateful for the vigilante."

Syn was shaking her head, "If you had just handed your wallet over they probably wouldn't have done anything more. Your money is not worth your life..."

Isabella glanced down at her left shoulder where her stitches were covered by her purple v-neck. Looking back to Syn, her eyes narrowed a bit.

"What's this really about Syn? Why are you acting like this? Why are you so afraid?"

Syn's face turned extremely pale.

 _What in the world is she thinking about? She's as pale as a ghost... it looks like she's seen one..._

She finally moved, licking her lips before swallowing, "I've never told you about my brother..." Isabella shook her head, confused by the change of direction in their conversation, "My brother was my best friend Izzy." Isabella noted the keyword _was_ in that sentence.

"Aaron was only a year older than me and we grew up pretty much inseparable. When he was at college in New Jersey I went down to visit him this one weekend in November. I was so excited to see him because it had been months and I couldn't exactly go down every weekend. I met him after his shift at the university's bookstore. He wanted to show me the campus and where his classes were..." Tears started streaming down her cheeks, like a flood being unleashed. "There-" Syn swallowed before she managed, "was this disturbed man that came to the campus that day too... He had a small looking rifle with him... and started shooting at everyone...!" Syn was visibly shaking and before Isabella could do anything, Syn got into the fetal position, her head resting between her legs.

"Aaron and I were behind where the man was and could have gotten away... But Aaron..." Her voice broke before she continued, her voice harsh now, "He wanted to try and stop the man." She looked at Isabella.

The breath Isabella hadn't realized she had been holding came rushing out as she saw the haunted look in Syn's eyes. The light that usually was there was gone, making her grey eyes look like steel.

"I'll never forget what I was feeling when Aaron ran up to that man. I couldn't do anything but watch as Aaron and that psycho struggled... Aaron wasn't... he..." Syn closed her tear-filled eyes, her head between her legs again. "He was shot and killed before my eyes Izzy." She sobbed and Isabella immediately put her arms around the poor girl. "The gunman shot himself right after that...!"

Isabella stroked Syn's back, trying to help her calm down.

"Syn... I'm so sorry... Your brother was so brave."

Syn violently jerked her body away, eyes narrowing. Isabella was stunned by the glare Syn gave her.

"No! He! _Wasn't_! He was an idiot trying to play hero! If he had just run like I wanted to he would Be **ALIVE**!"

Syn completely broke down, wailing into her hands as Sting started whining loudly. Murphy started whining as well. Isabella picked up her puppy, unsure of what to do.

 _TISSUES!_

She let Murphy down and dashed to her bathroom. Syn was calming down some once her eyes were dry.

"I'm sorry," Syn said, trying to get her breathing under control, "This... vigilante just brings back so many painful memories and feelings. The fact that I think our street is a place he watches... Makes me terrified. Someone who thinks they're above the law... I don't..." Syn trailed off.

Isabella was quiet as she watched her friend collect her bearings. She had never once thought to be afraid of the vigilante. She had only ever seen him save people. But... she knew he was likely the one who had fought with bad people if he was the one behind those Yakuza men being arrested. The vigilante was certainly making dangerous enemies by doing what he did. Even making enemies with the police who were trying to take him in. Isabella had not really thought of the dangers this man was putting himself through. The two times she had seen him he had seemed so strong and there had been an air of mystery around him but almost like he wasn't afraid of what was going to happen to him, like he could handle himself. Isabella had been more interested in who he was and why he was doing this.

But from what Syn had said about her brother, it made her question if the vigilante was a hero or some crazy guy playing hero...

* * *

Leo's POV

Ever since his and Raph's fight Master Splinter was being harder on their training. He had decided to have the brothers fight in pairs, Donnie with Mikey and Leo with Raph. So far Raph hadn't done anything but follow their father's instructions to work together. Leo could tell though that Raph really liked going on patrols, it was the only time he could be alone beside when they slept.

Raph was keeping his anger in check but Leo knew that was only in front of their father. Police reports of criminals being brutalized told him and his brothers that Raph was taking his frustration out on them. Leo had been planning on talking with Raph that night but a text from April had stopped him. She told him to watch the news that night with his family and apologized but told him that she could not dissuade her higher ups to not cover this.

The police were bringing their investigation to the public, asking if anyone had any information about the vigilante to come forward and help the police bring this person in. Leo's eyes narrowed as he sat with his family in the living area, all eyes on the TV screen as the police commissioner and Detective Harris and Lee were done giving their speeches. Master Splinter turned off the TV.

All four of the brothers were silent but Leo quickly glanced to Raph, who was sitting on the couch by Mikey. Splinter stroked his beard before he sighed.

"All of you," he turned to look at them, "are not going to be leaving home for awhile."

"What! Why!?" "Sensei!" Mikey and Raph said at the same time. Splinter raised a hand, silencing them.

"Until the police are not actively searching for you." Leo's lips were in a hard line.

"What if we went out together? Or in pairs?" Mikey asked.

"Yes we can't leave the good people of the city to suffer," Donnie chimed in, "The probability of crimes being committed would go up exponentially!"

Leo watched as their father let his head fall forward.

"It is time we all get some rest. We will discuss this further tomorrow."

All of the brothers were unsure what Master Splinter would decide. Leo was worried about what Donnie had said. Over the past months they had been patrolling, city gang members had been arrested and the overall violence in the city had decreased. Naturally the police would investigate this, even if the results were good. Raph said it was cause the cops wanted all the credit when it came to stopping criminals. Leo knew that it wasn't entirely inaccurate but that by trying to track down the vigilante, to the police they were just doing their job.

Making it to his room, Leo wasn't tired so he decided to try and finish his game of The Witcher 3. An hour went by and Leo could feel his eyes growing heavy, indicating he should go to sleep soon. Teeth brushed, Leo laid down on his bed, looking up at his ceiling. His walls weren't covered like his brothers. The key to a clear mind was your personal space being clean and clear of distractions or so he had believed. Mikey had a mix of his sketches and comic book cover posters. Donnie had posters too though the only one Leo could understand was the poster of Albert Einstein. Raph had band posters and muscle cars on his walls though one time Leo had accidentally discovered that underneath some of his brothers posters were Playboy pictures.

In some ways Leo envied his younger brothers. With Splinter choosing him to be their leader it came with a lot of responsibilities, some welcomed, others were harder to deal with. He liked that he was the one with the final say when it came to a lot of situations and that Splinter did take his word on many things. But he realized that even though he liked being the leader, it did bring on stress that his brothers didn't understand.

It was his job to keep them all safe but he did wish sometimes that he could be as relaxed as his brothers could be. They had their hobbies, Donnie invented things, living for his next success or complicated fix up that inventing brought with it. Mikey was the best gamer out of all of them, could draw all types of things from the abstract to realistic and was a natural at using his rocket skateboard. Raph loved working on the truck they had gotten and would do woodcarvings along with recently trying to learn how to play the drums. When Raph brought in the drumset, it looking brand new, Leo immediately knew Raph had stolen it. Which honestly wasn't new in their family. They had to steal and dumpster dive most of their lives. But what Leo felt was that although he was a skilled fighter and an excellent ninja, he felt like his brothers were more talented with their wider range of skills.

Leo shook his head before taking off his mask and turning over to sleep.

 _I could try finding something to be good at tomorrow, we might not be leaving home for a while if Dad decides to not let us out until the police..._

Closing his eyes, he soon found himself having a nightmare.

He was battling the Foot Clan alone in an abandoned warehouse. He looked for his brothers but suddenly was under water being pulled down. Looking around panicing he saw his brothers off in the distance... with beautiful mermaids around them. His brothers were smiling, a look of bliss on their faces. Leo looked down to see what was pulling him. A blonde mermaid smiled at him sweetly. Leo turned to see his brothers swimming to the surface with the three other mermaids. Leo tried to follow but was still being dragged down by the mermaid who was now changing, morphing into a shark. Teeth opening up at Leo, he jolted awake. He looked to see it was only 4 AM. Growling a little, he threw his pillow over his face.

 _What the heck was with that dream...?_

* * *

 _I hope you liked this chapter! I like doing Raph and Leo's POV and there is a reason I am doing Leo's POV too. It may not be apparent to you all to why I am but I have plans for him in my story! Trust me when I say that I am really excited for the romance I have in store for the characters but that I am also excited about the adventures that are just ahead. It's a slow burn romance though, don't expect any of the characters to be head over heels just yet. I want it to feel natural. And as for one of the reviews I got, asking if there would be a love triangle... You'll have to read to see!_


	7. Chapter 7

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 _WARNING: Crude Language_

 _More plot/story building in this chapter! Hope you enjoy! Let me know by reviewing!_

* * *

 _Please have them come out today!_

It was Friday finally! It had been five days and Isabella was going to an early morning appointment that would hopefully end with her getting her stitches removed!

In the waiting room, Isabella was checking her blog's traffic from yesterday's video. Typically she would gain a couple new subscribers with every new video tutorial each week. Reading through the comments she smiled. Praise was always welcome but something she noticed recently was some of the viewers who had been with her for the last year were asking for her to do personal story videos. They wanted to get to know who she was.

"Isabella?" The nurse called out. Isabella quickly put her phone in her bag and walked with the nurse to the next room.

"Let me take your blood pressure and Dr. Garden will be in shortly."

Isabella wished the nurse would hurry up. She wanted to get her stitches out!

"Are you alright dear?" The nurse's question caught her off guard.

"Huh?"

"Your blood pressure is a little high."

"Oh! It's just cause I'm a little anxious, sorry."

The nurse smiled in understanding, "Try to relax a little."

Isabella could feel her toes wiggling in her shoes, desperate to dance after a whole five days of just walking. She was nearly bouncing in her seat when Dr. Garden came in.

"Hello Isabella, how are you feeling?"

"Good, but hopefully you'll have good news about my stitches and I can be great!" The doctor chuckled before looking at her chart again.

"So let's see how your shoulder is recovering."

Isabella pulled off her red cardigan before Dr. Garden peeled off her bandage. He gently massaged the skin a bit, closely examining each stitch. Rolling his stool away, he went back to where her chart was on the counter.

"Your stitches are healing properly," Isabella smiled hopefully. "However," her face fell and Dr. Garden noticed, "To be safe, I recommend we keep them in for at least three more days, five at most."

Isabella nodded, still sad.

"Just keep doing what you have been and you should be good as new by this time next week. Do you have any questions?" She shook her head. "If you think of one feel free to call. Mary in front can help you schedule your next appointment."

Isabella tried to smile as he walked her out. Saying goodbye and making the appointment for three days from now she sighed when she got outside.

 _Hopefully only three more days..._

She began making her way to the subway to head to work.

The day was a blur, Emily was unable to meet her for lunch, she said she was behind on a story that's deadline was coming up. So Isabella ate with a couple of her fellow nail technicians, Kayla providing some entertainment, talking about her and her husband's plans for their upcoming anniversary. Work was nice, she got a new client which was great, although the woman said due to her job she couldn't do anything too colorful or fun like she said she had seen in Isabella's videos. That had made Isabella's day hearing that. She told the pretty lady that she could always have fun with her toenails if she wanted.

The work day had ended and since it was Friday, Emily and Isabella would be going to Mallory's Music Bar. Going home to change clothes and pick up Murphy from Syn's, Isabella had the urge to curl her hair. She normally didn't go through the trouble, her hair had a soft natural wave to it and it took forever. Contrary to her mostly Caucasian appearance, her mom 100% Mexican. Her sister Raquel looked more like their mom than she did. When Isabella told people she was half Mexican, no one really believed her.

Her lips, hair, and bust helped a little but she could easily pass off as French, which she was on her dad's side. Isabella's dad was a western European mutt, which was a nice mix of almost every country there.

But, going back to her hair, it was thick like her mom's and because of that, she needed at least an hour to fully curl it. Her hair was also fine, which meant the curls wouldn't hold unless hairspray was involved.

 **Finally,** after an hour and a half, her hair was curled and hairsprayed, she touched up her makeup before getting to the subway to Manhattan and meeting up with Emily. She was glad she had texted Emily earlier before she changed, they almost practically wore the same thing out! Emily wore a cute short black skirt with white sandals and an ice blue spaghetti strap shirt while Isabella wore black shorts with a red crop top and decided that she would try breaking in her new maroon strappy heels.

Walking into Mallory's had Isabella feel both relaxed and a little sad. She was so used to being on the stage performing here that it felt really strange to go back to being a spectator.

Last Century's instruments were set up on the stage but the guys were over at the bar.

"Hey Iz!" Tyler said, raising a hand when he saw her.

"Show us the war wound!" Ren said, eagerness plain on his face. Emily rolled her eyes before ordering her and Isabella's usuals.

"Why do you want to see my stitches?"

"Cause it's cool! Pull that shirt off!"

"Hey man, stop," Tyler tried pulling Ren back down to his seat.

 _Clearly Ren has had a few drinks._

Ren slumped back, "You only ever see things like that in videos online, movies, or if you hang out in certain floors of a hospital."

"Then go there!" Isabella said laughing.

Ren looked stunned, faking utter mortification, "You know I'm a germaphobe!"

Bobby raised his head from the bar, looking like his usual tired self, he gave Ren a slightly disgusted look, "God! Why are you so girly all the time Ren?"

Ren blew him a kiss, "Sorry babe, proud and loud and all that gay goodness is here 24/7." Bobby just rolled his eyes, before he finished half his beer. Looking over to Isabella, he glanced her up and down, eyebrows knitted together.

"Remind me again why you can't play tonight Is-a-bel-la?" She narrowed her eyes a bit before taking the drink that was placed in front of her.

"My doctor said not to do anything that could cause any further injuries to my stitches. Quick movement and sweating aren't good for them and I'm still sore! Muscles are healing!" Isabella stuck out her tongue at the tipsy lead singer.

"Stick your tongue at me again," he smirked, "I'll put it against something that could use a good licking!" Bobby and Ren howled with laughter.

"Misogynistic pig!" She rolled her eyes but smiled. Bobby never meant those things towards her. She knew she wasn't his type. Redheads with freckles, brown eyes, and thicker girls were his type.

"Hey! I don't hate women, but everyone knows you can't trust them. Women are crazy!"

The new bartender Bridgit, seemed offended by what Bobby had said.

"Aren't you supposed to go on soon?" she asked harshly as she took his nearly empty beer mug away.

"Hey, Bridgit don't be like that." He leaned forward on the bar, smirking, "Top me off and you can be on top of me tonight." Bobby had the audacity to wink. Bridgit just stared blankly before she turned and dumped the rest of his drink down the sink. Bobby slumped, letting his head rest against the bar.

"Looks like you can't flirt your way to get everything Bobby," Emily said chuckling before she took a drink. He flipped her the bird, head still on the bar.

"How are you Emily? Still single?" Tyler asked, a half smile playing with his features.

"Still a mother, so yes," she laughed once through her nose before finishing half her drink. She and Tyler had this witty banter routine. Isabella, trying to help Emily out, had asked both of them separately a while back what they thought of each other. Emily had said that although it was hot that he could play bass, she just didn't feel anything like that for him.

Tyler had told Isabella the thing she knew Emily feared most each time she put herself out there. Tyler didn't have anything against Emily. He thought she was really hot and sweet but her having a kid was something he didn't think he was ready to deal with.

Isabella never said any of this to Emily and was extremely glad Emily didn't find Tyler attractive.

Bobby lifted his head from the bar, a red mark on his forehead before announcing loudly that the band would go on in five. Some diehard Last Century fans squealed and cheered from the bars left corner, closest to the stage. Bobby gave the group of girls a wink before making his way to the stage. Isabella sighed before she finished most of her drink.

"You'll be back up there next week Izzy!" Ren patted her good shoulder before he and Tyler followed after Bobby.

Sighing again Isabella turned to watch the guys set up. A few moments later someone tapped her on the shoulder. Looking back, she came to face Donovan.

"Hi!" Isabella's mood went from sullen to cheerfully nervous in seconds. He smiled down at her, she hadn't realized just how tall he was since he had been on the ground or sitting in an ambulence car during their last encounter.

"I thought I recognized you. Didn't realize we went to the same music bar," he took out the stool next to her before taking a seat. Emily, having watched the exchange and Isabella's reaction, extended her hand out to Donovan.

"Hi, I'm Emily, Izzy's best friend. And who are you?" her smile was friendly even if her words were blunt.

He shook her hand. Isabella noticed the bandages still there and they went up into his green long sleeved shirt.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Donovan, but please call me Don." Emily gave Isabella a knowing look with her eyes. The morning after the fire incident Isabella had texted Emily all the details, not wanting to be grilled for holding back on 'exciting life events'.

Looking at his expression, Don still considered her to have saved his life which made Isabella in turn a little uncomfortable. It had been the vigilante who had really saved him. He might have burned to death without the vigilante or suffered worse burns. She had texted this to him when they had talked over the last few days. It was always brief because Don told her he wished to get to know her better when they met for their date. Isabella didn't really know how she felt about that but found it a little sweet.

A loud guitar cord blared throughout the bar and Isabella turned to see the guys begin playing 'Lost in the City'. It was one of their new songs and proving to be a popular one.

"So why aren't you performing? You're in the band aren't you?" Don asked, getting her attention back to him.

"Oh uh..." she took another sip of her drink, her mouth having gone a little dry, "I got hurt earlier this week and my doctor said no strenuous activities for a while." Isabella's eyes grew wide as she realized how that must have sounded.

 _He might be thinking of something totally wrong and misinterpret that as something really off...! Gotta give context!_

To Don's credit, he tried to suppress his chuckle before Isabella blurted out, "I got stabbed!" her eyes grew wide and she saw Emily behind Don look at her like, 'what the hell are you doing!?'

"Oh god, sorry!" Isabella said utterly embarrassed. She could feel her face becoming hot, "What I meant was, I was almost mugged and when I tried to get away the guy cut my shoulder..."

Don, to his credit again, didn't interrupt her, his eyes only betraying his shock then concern.

"I'm completely okay! The guy just grazed me, no permanent damage..." Isabella trailed off when Don gently took her right hand in one of his bandaged ones. His hold was so tender it surprised her.

"It's a good thing he didn't hurt you worse," he looked her in the eyes and smiled, "We wouldn't have had the pleasure of meeting and both of us might-"

Isabella cut him off, "Be dead?"

Don laughed even though Isabella knew she was being morbid.

He began to ask her a series of questions, normal questions anyone would ask. What's her favorite type of music, favorite bands and they compared each other's favorite bands. They missed the rest of Last Century's first set. Emily, Isabella saw, was flirting with a cute blonde guy who had taken the seat next to her. Isabella was happy to see that, also relieved because she realized she had totally ignored her for the past half hour.

"Micky!" A shrill voice shouted, "What, The, Hell!" Isabella and Don both looked to see this angry redhead glaring at the guy Emily had been flirting with. The guy jumped out of his barstool.

"Cass!" Then the guy said the most cliche of things people say when they get caught doing something wrong, "It's not what it looks like."

 _Tall guy..._

That's all Isabella thought when looking at him... That is until the next few words left his mouth.

"The slut was flirting with me!"

 _Oh hellll no!_

"Hey buddy!" Isabella said glaring, getting up from her stool and putting herself in between the asshole and Emily, "She's not a slut! If anyone's a slut here it's you for flirting with a girl when you already have one!" Isabella watched as the guy glared back at her. She could see why Emily had been flirting with him, nice curly blonde hair, forest green eyes and his cheekbones were to die for. His attitude though, made all those features irrelevant and all she could see was an asshole. Isabella felt someone behind her and glanced to see Don, his expression blank but intense.

"Hey man," the asshole said to Don, "Keep your bitch under control." At the same time, the red head, Cass barked in Isabella's face, "Back off betch*, this doesn't involve you!" She was so loud Isabella winced a little from the sheer volume. Two things happened at once. Don got in front of Isabella, had the asshole's arm out behind his back with his face smashed against the bar counter. The second thing was Bobby's voice ringing out over the bar, microphone in hand, getting everybody's attention.

"Hey man, why you causing our keyboardist trouble? Apologize to her, and her friend. It's the least you can do."

The guys face lifted off the bar a little, "Screw you!" he shouted at Bobby. Don quickly pushed the asshole's face back down.

Bobby laughed and the look that came over his face, Isabella knew things were about to get ugly.

"No thanks man, you're not my type," he chuckled into the mic, "But your girl is and she was a lot of fun." Everyone in the music bar had been watching since Bobby called out to the asshole. They seemed to be eating it up, excited and silently observing what would happen next. After that last sentence was uttered, people gasped and went crazy.

The asshole managed to get out of Don's arm lock and was charging towards the stage to Bobby, his face furious. Before he got there he was stopped by Marcus, the owner of Mallory's.

Isabella was instantly relieved when she saw him. Marcus was intimidating and was strict when it came to the rules of his bar. The first time she had met him she had been afraid. He was like the real life embodiment of the comic book character Luke Cage.

Marcus got the asshole's arms behind his back, "No fighting in my bar." He began moving the guy towards the exit.

"Hey! Get the hell off me man!" The asshole shouted, attempting to break free. His flailing was pathetic but he almost got lose at one point, it made Marcus pause. He got a better grip on him before changing directions.

He stopped at the bar where Bridgit and Harold, the other bartender were. Bridgit had a handheld camera ready.

"Smile for the camera, you're now on Mallory's banned list. You can check back in a year if you want to see if I'll let you back in." Bridgit clicked the camera, the flash going off.

Marcus shoves the asshole out through the doors, Cass quickly following after him. Marcus walked back to his office, the whole bar watching him silently go by.

"Round of vodka shots for everyone! On me!" Bobby said, the whole bar erupting in cheers.

Isabella turned back to Emily, "You okay?" Her best friend rolled her eyes but smiled a little.

"Thanks for standing up to that guy for me," Emily gave Isabella a one armed hug before accepting her vodka shot from Bridgit.

"Cheers," Isabella looked to see Donovan holding two shot glasses, one being offered to her. She smiled and they clinked glasses. The horrible tasting liquid made its way down her throat, nearly causing her to gag. Vodka was not her favorite by a mile when it came to liquors.

"Thank you for backing me up," Isabella said as she set the glass down.

Don smiled, "You're welcome." He rubbed at his bandaged hands, "I'm glad it didn't wind up being a fight." Isabella shyly smiled, rubbing the back of her neck. "That was really nice of you to stand up for your friend."

Isabella grinned back at him before Don checked his watch.

"I gotta head out. We're still on for Sunday right?" She nodded. As he went through the bar doors Emily began asking questions regarding Sunday. Isabella felt her heart flutter as she talked with Emily about her date.

* * *

 _*Betch is just how she said bitch with her accent._

 _Thank you so much for your patience! I've been dragging my feet posting this cause it didn't feel right for the longest time. You know where you can feel somethings off but can't put your finger on what it is? That's what I was feeling until I tweeked this a lot. I'm not sure when I'll be posting again, could be a week, a month or two, but I have not lost interest in writing this story. I just won't be able to update it as fast/often as I will with my other story. Let me know what you think by reviewing!_


	8. Authors Note: Happy Birthday!

_AN: Please review! Also, I DO NOT OWN THE COVER IMAGE!_

 _deviant art: TMNT-Red-504630299 by mariadenisebrebos is where I found the image._

 **Happy Birthday Story!**

 **I can't believe it's been one year since I first posted this story and if I'm completely honest... I'm amazed at how much I have _yet_ to post! I have so many ideas for the story but sorting them all out so that they lead to something great is always a process. It's a little hard for me since I've been told by my sister after she had read some of my stuff that I seem more like an idea pitcher rather than an actual author! She says it's cause my writing is different and sometimes because of that it's harder to understand what I'm trying to have come across. She wasn't being mean, just a personal observation on her part. **

**I would have liked to post another chapter today in honor of the one year mark but alas it's not ready T-T**

 **Thank you if you've been reading since the beginning and thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited and reviewed!**

 **I promise I will post again to this story as soon as the next chapter is finished being edited!**

 **Thanks!**

 **~ AllyM93**


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